For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?
by Asso
Summary: This is the story of Persephone and Hades. An ancient story. A beautiful story. A story of light and darkness. A love story.
1. Chapter 1

**For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**

 **By Asso**

 **Chapter One**

* * *

 _Just like that._

 _For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?_

* * *

 **For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**

 **Chapter One**

* * *

 _Sunlight does not shine, here._

 _This is not the realm of sun._

 _Helios does not conduct his chariot across the blue of the heavens._

 _The heavens... they don't exist, here._

 _Here, there are no skies swept by fluffy clouds. Or gloomy and stormy skies. Of gentle breeze. Or impetuous winds. Of fresh and sweet air. Or crisp and lively._

 _There are no such things here, there is no place for them here. For things so full of life._

 _Here..._

 _There is no life._

* * *

"Oh Hera, my wife! Sniff! Smell! Feel! One senses the scent itself of life!"

* * *

 _There is not, here, its brilliant light. The vivid light of life. Punctuated by the brilliance of the day and by the quiet break of the night._

 _There is another light, here._

 _A dark light._

 _Sombre and obscure._

 _Always equal to itself. Immutable and unvarying._

 _All time_

 _A light without night._

 _A light without day._

* * *

"What a lightful day, Hera!"

Hera looked haughty at her Lord and Groom. Haughty, just like her stern voice. "Admittedly it is indeed..."

The thrilled eyes of him settled down on her, as his voice thundered, powerful and cheerful, blocking her words in her throat.

"The perfect day for this day! The sky is so blue that it can not be bluer. Helios shines as he never has shone. The clouds chase each other in the blue, joyful and evanescent." His mighty laugh rang out. "It just seems that our sister Demeter has decided to make this day the day that it must be!"

Hera said nothing and her gaze remained deadpan, just like her face.

Zeus took a deep breath.

Well, honestly he could understand her. He... he could not say that she was in the wrong, in showing such a coldness.

Slowly and gently - his gaze, though still proud, showing an equal sweetness - he came up to her. He took her hand, gently, and gently he drew her on to her feet.

Now the two of them were facing each other.

Her gorgeous and perfect visage, impassive and in wait, was turned up towards his.

Zeus sighed again.

Then, finally, he made up his mind to speak.

It was not easy for him to talk that way.

It was not easy for the King of the Gods to say what he wanted to say.

"Wife, I understand you, and you're right. I'm... I'm in the wrong." His voice was sincere. She knew grasp well, when he was lying.

She waited for what he was about to say.

"Hera... my wife... I am a two-timer, I know. I've betrayed you so many times. But..." Again. Another deep sigh. "But I love you. You are my bride."

She sighed in turn. Freeing her hand from his, she turned and, with her back to him... "You love me. Yes. I know." Her voice was soft and sorrowful. "You are sincere. But..." She turned toward him. Her eyes were sad. "But how many children, yours and not mine, do I have to tolerate yet to see walk on the scene of the world?"

Zeus grabbed his wife's hand and held it tightly. An affectionate squeeze, even. "Oh but... but this child… this child is something else! She's... she's different! She will be the one who…"

And his voice failed him.

And Hera stood astounded. Never such a thing had happened to him!

Wide-eyed, she remained dumb to listen to his words, the moment he regained his self-control.

His voice sounded strange. There was something in it... a tone... yes, an apologetic tone. True. Real. Sincere. But also something else. Pride? Joy? Yes, it was so. And this was at all understandable. But the issue was that, in the midst of all this, one could perceive, could feel even...

… _something more yet. Something... something..._

But it was not possible. It could not be fear.

The King of the Gods did not fear anything or anyone.

And then why? That was the day that he had long awaited, not the day of the fear, but the day of the joy and satisfaction, for him and... yeah, even for Demeter.

And so why?

What could on that day, just on that day, strike fear and just into him, the mighty Lord of all, Gods and Mortals, the one who by definition _nothing_ could fear?

Absolutely nothing. Except...

Eh sure. Nothing except Destiny.

Destiny...

Hera pondered.

Yeah, Destiny. Of which, sometimes, it was possible to discern some vague glimpse.

It happened to everyone. To Gods and Mortals, although anything, in reality, of what Destiny had in store for Gods and Mortals appeared never clear in the eyes of anyone.

However, it happened. To all.

Even to the King of the Gods.

Fear, so? Could it be? For some inkling he someway had had about the future that was in store for that daughter - in his saying so much different from any other of… his children - of whom they were talking about? And also… also...

Disquiet? Dismay, even?

Could there be all this, amid the flamboyant and self-confident thunders of his words?

What was he hiding from her, her royal consort?

What sort of obscure and scary vision was it possible he had been able to rob eventfully from the arcane mind of Destiny?

What was concealed in his bombastic words?

"She is the daughter mine and of Demeter, o my wife! She's the daughter of the King of the Gods and of the Goddess of Nature! The daughter of one of the daughters of Cronos and of the one who, among his children, defeated him! That's her! That's the one who is meant to be the worthy daughter of two of the mightiest gods among the mightiest gods! Of the one who governs Nature and of the one who governs everything!"

But right after, Zeus's voice dropped to a sigh. "And whether Demeter can ever have another child or not, no one else of her children can ever be like this one."

Then, as if desirous to show of whom the voice was, it became mighty again. Very mighty. And proud. "And only from me and from her could arise such a child!"

The voice became almost rough. "I admit. I enjoyed doing it enormously. But I couldn't help but do it, Hera."

The voice was a rumble. "She was to be born."

The voice paused.

One long moment.

Then it resumed. Even more mightily.

" **Light** was to be born!"

* * *

 _My light._

 _The light of my realm._

* * *

Hera looked at her consort with intense and puzzled gaze. She knew him very well and when he used so orotund words… well, this meant that there was something that didn't add up. Not to mention what she had seen in his eyes and sensed in his tone.

What lay behind his grandiloquent speaking?

"The light? What do you mean, husband? The light already exists. Helios lights up the world. The sky, the earth, even the depths of the sea realm ruled by Poseidon. The light is everywhere."

Zeus found himself looking dazed on his wife. For Uranus' sake! It was true! The light was everywhere! Why had he found himself proclaiming that thanks to him was born the light? Brought by his daughter? His and of Demeter? She, their daughter, would bring the unknown feel of something there was not yet. Would bring the sparkling joy of a sweet ... how to call it? ... yes, here ... of a sweet season. Season. That was the term. Something that didn't previously exist. Something that, despite being the passing of the days of the year already constantly cosy and pleasant, would make more diverse and gayest the immutable climate of now, the climate of Demeter. This was what she would bring with her. Of this, she would be the Goddess. Of… of... _its name would be Spring_.

Zeus raised his bushy eyebrows.

The Spring. Bright, this was certain. Gently, beautifully, softly bright. So he imagined that the gift that her daughter would bring with her would be. But, by no means, such a gift would be the carrier of something that already existed.

Yes. It existed. Light existed already. Although the chariot of Helios not yet walked the paths of the sky, it existed already since the dawn of time, since the time of Uranus and Gaea. And maybe even before. Before. When there was only Chaos.

It existed. Everywhere.

Everywhere.

Yeah. Everywhere.

That word swirled in the mind of Zeus.

Everywhere everywhere everywhere...

No. It wasn't… it wasn't so.

Not everywhere.

The dark shadow of the strange and chilling premonition which had seized him when his daughter had been born, which had prompted him to recommend to Demeter to grow their daughter under the closest surveillance, powerfully grabbed him and its true meaning, the truth that was hidden in it, became clear, now, in his mind.

That word - _light_ \- that he had unwittingly uttered in thinking about her, about his daughter, about her very essence... that word had brought into the open that recondite and terrifying meaning, that awful truth.

The cursed plan of Destiny.

 _ **Not everywhere.**_

The words of his wife had been the push that was needed yet to understand everything, to bring in full light the dark substance of that ancient vague foreboding he had had just at the birth of his daughter.

 _In full light._ **Light!** Once again that word! Once again that word whose deepest essence so well suited his daughter!

No! Damnit, no! The light, the light of all time, the light that had always been, the light that existed prior to the _new_ light of his daughter, did not shine everywhere!

 _ **Not everywhere!**_

And, without knowing it, without realizing it, he found himself murmuring stunned the two scary words that were chasing each other within him.

"Not everywhere."

Perplexed and confused, Hera wrinkled her beautiful and haughty forehead. "Not everywhere? But that's untrue, husband! The light is everywhere. There is no corner of the world where Helios can not reach. What more might she do? In what unknown land unimaginably devoid of light, might she bring it? She, the Goddess..." Hera strove to repress the bitterness that the mere thought of saying what she was going to say caused to her. "... the Goddess who was born in Demeter's wombs from the seed you have implanted inside them?"

* * *

 _The only light that could be born here. In the cavernous, secret wombs of the earth._

 _My light._

 _My dark and cold and gloomy light._

 _Dark._

 _And cold._

 _And gloomy._

 _And… lonely._

 _Like me._

* * *

Zeus sighed deeply. Something... a kind of veiled sadness - or was it guilt? - crossed his eyes.

And this time his wife was sure.

There was fear in them. And disquiet. And dismay.

And suddenly she understood.

The light - _the true light_ \- was not everywhere!

There was a place, a concealed realm, a realm that none of them – Gods or Mortals - wanted to know, where there was another light.

A dark and terrifying light. A light which was darkness.

Only Hermes had sometimes crossed the horrid threshold leading to that light, by reason of his duties.

And every time, he had come back shocked; every time, shaken by tremors unworthy of a God, he had yelled from the rooftops that never he would go back down there, although he had never gone much beyond the threshold and had never met in person, in flesh and blood, the… the source of that light made of shadow.

And only the terror that Zeus could force him to be for much more time than that of one of his missions as messenger of Gods, had, each time, persuaded him to set foot down there again.

But the last time he had screamed that he would rather give up all privileges of his being a God, that he would rather live forever among the Humans, mixed with them, one of them.

Hera's hand grabbed that of her august husband, held it tremendously strongly.

"No! No, Zeus! **No!** You won't... you won't allow! You won't allow… "Hera swallowed hard before managing to say it; before that pronoun could get free out from her lips. "… **him!** "

Zeus looked at his wife with lost eyes.

Inside his mind, his thought ran terrified over there.

To that other realm.

To the dark and cold and gloomy realm...

To the lonely realm...

Of his lonely brother.

Of the powerful and dangerous older brother. Dangerous. The only one who could have the strength to oppose him.

The one... the one he, with a dirty and deceitful trick, had condemned to eternal solitude.

And who, with a simple and quiet nod, had accepted the burden of his destiny.

The destiny that only he could hold up.

The fate of being…

 **Hades.**

* * *

 _Strange thoughts, on this day._

 _On this day that seems to me pervaded more than ever by the gloomy light of my realm._

 _By my light._

 _Strange._

 _Why these thoughts?_

 _My burden is heavy, but it is my burden._

 _I have accepted it._

 _I have nodded to my ambitious young brother my assent. I have nodded with my head and my eyes to him that I was willing to bear the burden that he was giving me by deception, both of us well aware of his ignoble trick._

* * *

The monstrous Hades.

The tenebrous Hades.

The wicked Hades.

Hated and reviled.

And lonely.

For eternity.

* * *

 _Strange, strange thoughts._

 _Strange._

 _Why do I have them?_

 _Why is my cold stone throne so cold today?_

 _Why does the light that surrounds me - my light - appear to me so cold and dark, today?_

 _It is a day like many others._

 _A cold day; and melancholy._

 _And lonely._

 _Like all my days._

* * *

Zeus remembered well that distant day. It was carved forever in his mind.

As much as convinced of himself he might be, he knew that his reign was founded on deception.

And he was certainly not the only one to know.

Oh yes! He remembered well! He perfectly remembered the grim and conscious nod of assent that his sombre brother had given him; the mocking, disdainful and yet, in some way, also unfathomably sad spark of awareness that had shone in his dark and glacial eyes that distant day. Fully aware of the deception that he, Zeus, with that straw of which he knew the length - _the shortness_ \- was perpetrating against him.

But there was no another way. Or he or Hades. Poseidon counted for nothing.

And Hades knew that only he could hold the weight of such a fate.

And Hades was noble. Noble, damn him! A grim, dark and elusive nobility. Unfathomable. Exactly as grim, dark, elusive, unfathomable as it was him.

He, who, with one single glance, with his mere shadowy presence, was able to shake the veins and the wrists of the Titans, during that distant long, exhausting war for supremacy!

He, so different from all his brothers and all his sisters.

 _Frighteningly_ different.

A God... a God to keep away.

And he had agreed to stay away.

Had accepted to be kept away.

Because he was noble. Incomprehensibly noble. Obscurely noble.

And willing to accept the heavy burden of his obscure nobility!

Willing to accept his difference from any other God. To accept his own… _darkness_.

To accept to be the despised and feared Hades.

The horrid Hades.

The King of the Realm without light.

 **The Lord of the Underworld.**

* * *

 _I knew what was the destiny which expected me._

 _I knew._

 _I knew, when I pretended not to notice the deception of my youngest brother. When I nodded him my assent._

 _The straw._

 _The shorter straw to me!_

 _As if I did not know that my brother knew what was the longest straw. And the intermediate one. And the shorter one._

 _But never he or any other of our siblings could have been able to bear the burden of..._

 _Of the Underworld._

 _And, then, I knew it... everyone knew it… that one –_ _ **that one**_ _\- was my world._

 _I was the one who had ended up being the closest - horrendously near - to the dark and dull beat of the dull and dark heart of our father._

 _Of Cronos. Devourer of his sons._

 _That heartbeat made of darkness, of death..._

 _I carry and will always carry it with me._

 _None of my sisters and none of my brothers ever heard and felt that heart beating. None of them ever was pierced by its dark and chilling sound._

 _None of them felt, as I felt, the chill of the icy blood pumped by that wicked heart. None of them has been enveloped, as I have been, by the dull and appalling sound of its perennial flow._

 _And least of all he, the youngest. Zeus. Who never knew the darkness. And the silence. And the frost._

 _And the loneliness._

 _The dark and chilly belly of our father, the dark and wicked beating of his heart, toughened me up._

 _And marked me forever._

 _They condemned me to the darkness._

 _To the frost._

 _To the silence._

 _To the solitude._

 _Yes. The Underworld was and is and forever will be my world. It's my destiny._

 _And none of my brothers and my sisters could have ever borne my burden._ _ **I**_ _am the carrier of obscurity. The Dark One. Not them._

 _So I... I, who was... I knew, I know... everyone, including my brothers and my sisters, know... I, who was and am the mightiest, precisely because of this... I'm here._

 _In the dark of my dark light._

 _In the silence._

 _In the frost._

 _In the solitude._

 _To rule what only I can rule._

 _Without ever the sound of a mild laugh._

 _The warmth of a smile._

 _The laugh... the smile of someone._

 _Of a…_

 _A woman._

 _Who may love me._

* * *

Oh sure. Zeus remembered very well.

He remembered the treacherous way with which he had condemned the one, the only one who could have robbed him of the pre-eminence, to be the God without love.

* * *

 _Love? What's love? Why this word, inside me? I don't know love._

 _I am the God without love._

 _I know well. I can't be anything else._

 _So why?_

 _Why these thoughts today?_

 _I knew it._

 _I knew what would happen of me when I have made sacrifice of myself, when I prevented from making to happen - after a terrible war, the one between us and the Titans - another and even more fierce war, a fratricidal war between me and my young and mighty, certainly, but also outrageously cunning and ambitious brother. A war in which I would be alone, because - let also aside Poseidon - none of my brothers and my sisters would be deployed at my side. And, therefore, a war that would end or in my forced confinement in the same world that the trick of Zeus assigned surreptitiously to me - this time, however, not as its King, but as its captive - or in the subjugation, on my part, of all other members of my family._

 _And I would have been, in any event, alone. And neglected. And scorned. And despised. And hated._

 _More even than I am now._

 _This is my destiny._

 _To this I am forevermore doomed._

 _I knew all this perfectly, when I agreed to ignore the ignominious trick of my brother._

 _I was perfectly aware. More than him. More than any of my siblings._

 _I knew who I was and am._

 _I knew how would have been my days._

 _I knew what I would have been... forever._

 _I knew I would have been the dark king. The grim Lord._

 _I knew that fear would have been my companion._

 _I knew what would have been my name, a name that has no sound, that never emerges on anyone's mouth._

 _Never._

 _Except that at the end._

 _At the end. When it rises as an icy sigh, a gelid shudder of dread, that gets lost far away and fades and dies grimly, as if it hadn't ever been, rolling among the dead branches of the dead trees of a dead forest._

 _As if it had never existed._

 _My name. Just as me myself._

 _The One who does not exist. The One who it is best to think he does not exist._

 _That am I._

 _For the Mortals._

 _As well as for my brothers and my sisters._

 _As well as for all the other Gods and Goddesses who came after._

 _Who am I to them?_

 _Nothing. Nobody._

 _The unnameable God of eternal nothingness._

 _The God who, the day when Mortals appeared on the world scene, erected for them the kingdom of dead. The icy realm of eternal nothingness._

 _The God of Darkness._

 _Of the silence._

 _Of the frost._

 _Of the loneliness._

 _The God of Terror._

 _The God who frightens the Mortals._

 _And the Gods._

 _The God who is better if he stays where he is._

 _Away from everyone._

 _In the dark of his dark light._

 _In the silence. In the frost._

 _In his eternal solitude._

 _In…_

 _In his lonely world without love._

* * *

Zeus shook himself abruptly from his thoughts. The agitated voice of his wife brought him back to the world of the living.

"Thou shan't allow this, Husband! Thou shan't let his darkness penetrate her light!"

It was imperious, that voice. Yet terrified. And... and even pleading.

And that voice rose again, shrill, repeating with more force... " **Thou shan't let his darkness penetrate her light!** "

And it was clear, there was no need of any other details, to understand to whom they referred, that 'His' and that 'Her'.

But, nonetheless, Hera screamed it loudly.

" **Hades can not have Persephone!** "

* * *

 _Yes. Strange, strange thoughts, today._

 _Love._

 _What's it? I can't understand it. I can only understand it exists._

 _I can just grab, vaguely, something of the essence of what it is._

 _I am the God without love._

 _And I just know I am this._

 _So?_

 _Why these thoughts today? In this day so equal to all my lonely days?_

 _Why this strange longing? This yearning that I do not understand?_

 _This desire to ..._

 _To be loved? I?_

 _But..._

 _That's absurd! Absurd!_

 _For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?_

* * *

Zeus' eyes widened.

"I... I thought that you ..."

"That I hate your daughter, husband? That I may enjoy that evil may swoop down on her?"

"Well, I ... I ..."

"So do you judge your wife, Husband? This do you think of her?"

At this point Zeus found himself reacting angrily.

"I do not seem that tenderness is your hallmark, wife!"

Hera stood still for a moment to look at her consort with resentful gaze.

Then she lowered her head.

She turned, still head down.

And, with bowed head, in a low voice, she spoke.

"It is true. I am not tender. But it's hard to be tender considering all the times I had to bite the bullet of your treacheries."

Zeus suddenly felt guilty. "Hera ..."

She turned and looked at him with sad eyes, by slaying in his throat whatever he was going to say.

"But ..." Her eyes took on a strange light, a gentle light that he had never seen before in them. "... but it's true what you say, my husband. Persephone is different."

She lowered her head again and spoke one more time, but as if she were speaking not only to him but even and above all to herself.

"I detested her, when she was born. Then I have seen her grow. I've seen her become a little girl and then a maiden. I have seen flourish her beauty and her innocence. I have seen become little by little marvellously vivid her sweet light."

She smiled sweetly and sadly together.

"Yeah. That's right, husband. You're right. She brings light, with her. A light that was not there before. A different light. Just like her."

Her head stood up. Her eyes stared at his.

"It's not possible to hate Persephone, husband. It's only possible to love her."

* * *

 _For who could ever learn the Lord of the Underworld?_

* * *

Zeus was speechless. He could do nothing but stand by and watch his wife open-mouthed.

"She is not only gorgeous, husband. She is the imagine of purity and innocence. Things that neither you nor I nor any other of our brothers and sisters nor any of the sons and daughters who are born to us before her have ever had. It is true what you say. She's really different. She is the hope of a different and brighter world. Wonderfully bright. Of a light that never there was before."

The mouth of Zeus continued to remain wide open, as well as his eyes.

"And you can not allow it to be for her fulfilled such a cruel destiny! If it's true what you have fear that it can happen, if it is true what I have understood that you've felt that could happen, you - you, o Lord of all Gods - you have to stop it! This time you must oppose even the Destiny! "

There was a long silence.

Zeus was able to close his mouth, at last, and watched for a long time his wife with a fixed gaze, her eyes locked on his, her lush breasts panting.

Then a veil of pain, a veil of sadness clouded the eyes of Zeus.

He gently took her hand; squeezed it softly.

"Hera ..." It was not the thunderous voice of the King of the Gods, that one. It was a voice pained and distraught. A whisper. "...nobody, not even I, can oppose the Destiny."

Hera freed vehemently her hand from his and looked at him with burning eyes.

"And instead you will do! This time you will do it! You will do it, my husband!"

"Hera ..."

"Thou won't let her be the one who has to pay the reckoning of your deception!"

"Wife! Watch out! Off your tongue! "

But Hera didn't even stay to listen to him.

"The fruit of your seed shan't give its gorgeous light to the dark world in which you have fraudulently relegated _him_!"

"With his assent, wife! With his silent assent! He agreed to be who he is!"

Now Zeus was angry. Extremely angry. Because his wife was throwing to him in the face the truth. A double truth. That of his deception. And that that the one who would have to pay his deception would be his daughter.

His eyes grew hard. His voice thundered.

"And it doesn't really seem to me that you, as well as any other of the sons and daughters of Cronos, have then considered so vile my deception!"

But it was as if he spoke to the wind and, indeed, his irate statements uncorked other and unpleasant outbursts of words on the part of his wife; violent words, that Hera flung without much ado on his angry face.

"His assent? You think he knew that you were tricking him?"

"Of course he knew! And he ..."

"And he allowed himself to be fooled?"

"And what did you want him to do? Let be unleashed another war? A fratricidal war?"

"Ah, so then he would have pulled nobly back and would have accepted your deception for nobility of soul?"

"Oh well..."

"Zeus, Hades has bowed to your cheating because ... because he's a monster! A monster that can stay just where they're monsters! Down there! In the Underworld! It is there, that he wanted and wants to stay! Far away from us! Far away from everyone! "

"Hera! Stop it! He's not a monster! He was the only one who could stand up to that damn kingdom and govern it and he knew it. But instead of asking openly to him, I gave him that kingdom through deceit and I sentenced him to eternal solitude!"

"Do you remember his eyes, Zeus? Do you remember them?"

Zeus could not help but feel a chill in the back. Yes. He remembered his eyes. They were eyes that put the willies.

Hera sighed. She managed to calm down a little.

"Maybe... maybe I exaggerate, my husband. Maybe it is true that there is in him a sort of strange grandeur. But it is a greatness that gives the shudders. And... I do not even wonder if he has consented to bend to your deception without complain nor fight because driven by this sort of dark nobility or because the lure of that dark world, the world to which he belongs, was so strong for him to make him forget every possible wrong suffered by him. I just know that he is there, away from everyone, far from us. And this is enough also to everyone else who witnessed the division of the kingdoms, and this is more than enough to explain why none of us has had anything to say! And... "

Hera's voice trailed off. Became a whisper. Almost a sorrowful prayer. "... and I do not want him out of there. I do not want those frightening and malefic eyes of him to alight on Persephone. I do not want her to have to soothe the loneliness to which you... to which _we all_ have condemned him! "

* * *

 _For who could ever learn to love me?_

* * *

Zeus remained quiet a long moment, looking at his wife with intense gaze, absorbing her words. Then he nodded gravely.

And then…

" **AND SO IT WILL BE!"**

His voice was a thunder that made shook the bones.

Hera stepped back, scared.

It was really the King of the Gods the one who loomed now in front of her.

And his ardent and authoritarian eyes alighted on her.

"Why do you move back, wife? Why do you get scared at the very moment in which I decide to comply with your desire? To elude Destiny?"

Hera looked at him almost incredulous. Her voice sounded uncertain. The voice of the Queen of the Gods sounded uncertain. "Really will you do it, my Lord and Husband? Really will you try to ...?"

"I will not try, Hera. I will do it."

"But..."

Suddenly Zeus' eyes softened, as well as his voice. On his volitional mouth the shadow of a smile.

"You do not trust your husband, my wife?"

Hera, despite the moment, could not refrain. "It depends on what you mean, husband."

Zeus laughed uproariously. "Yeah. You're right. Maybe I should have _said 'the King of the Gods'_ , rather than _'your husband'_."

Hera snorted, her fear abruptly evaporated in annoyance.

"Forget it, husband. No matter ..." Her eyes hardened. "... at the moment." Then her gaze was transformed. It became sweet. Yes, sweet. And full of hope. "But how will you do, my Lord and Husband? How will you be able to evade Fate?"

Zeus became deadly serious. His voice was low. And rough. And determined. And threatening. "I will deceive it."

Hera's eyes widened.

Those of Zeus narrowed to two slits.

"Just as I have done with him."

Hera's eyes grew puzzled and questioning. She took a step forward, toward him, completely forgetful of her previous fright. "You will deceive Destiny? But... but how ...?"

Zeus laughed again, gaily. "How? You're the one who suggested to me how, my wife."

"I?"

"Yes, you."

"But... but..."

Zeus took his wife's hand and there was affection in the gesture.

He smiled. "Hera, my wife. Think about what you said."

"And... what did I say, my Lord?"

" _I do not want those frightening and malefic eyes of him to alight on Persephone._ This, you've said."

"Yes, it is true. But... but with this? How can this sentence of mine be the way...?"

"The way I'll evade Destiny? The way I'll fool it?"

"Yes."

Zeus' eyes grew gravely serious again.

"Hera, you do not realize the depth of your words. But they are the solution."

"But how? How?!"

Zeus smiled, with no smile in his eyes. "You can wish for, you may want only what you see. What you know."

Hera was silent, waiting for the following.

And Zeus revealed his thought.

His plan.

His deception.

"This is the day, the bright day, when Persephone will be presented to the world. To the Gods. To all the Gods. Nobody left out. This is, at least, what Destiny expects to happen. So it's always been. Why should be different today? Right today? "

Zeus left off Hera's hand. He stepped back to look at her in whole.

"But today will be different. Today not all the Gods will be present. A pair of eyes - a pair of dark and scary eyes - will not be able see her."

Hera walked over to her husband.

Her voice betrayed her hope. "You did not inform him!"

Zeus laughed aloud. "No. I have not done it." He grinned. "An act of kindness, from me towards him."

His grin became a malicious smirk. "He stays so well over there, in his world! Why disturbing him?"

Then his expression turned grim.

He turned and his gaze ranged on the hemicycle of thrones on the bottom of the great room where he and Hera were.

He looked at one by one those majestic thrones, finally stopping his eyes on one of them.

A big, dark ebony and ivory throne, located to the left of the throne of Hera, which was to the left of his own throne. A simple and unadorned Throne, far from being lavish, contrary to the others. Yet, somehow, even more stately than them. And, somehow, permeated with a dark and scary aura.

Hera's eyes rested on the Throne, like those of Zeus.

"He sat on that Throne only once, Hera. When he was anointed to be what he is. Then, never again. I called him in our councils, informing him of every God and every Goddess who little by little were added to our circle. And hoping that he would not come. And he, thanks to Uranus, never came. He has perfectly perceived that none of us wanted him. He knows perfectly well that none of us wants him. He is perfectly aware of our ... "It was hard, on Zeus' part, to say that word. But it was no longer falsehoods time. And he said it. "... our disgust for him. And he just has always remained there, in his hideous world, disdainful of having to do with our disgust for what he is. And, let's face it, with our fear of him. Anyway, be that as it may, he knows every God and every Goddess simply because informed of their existence."

He turned to Hera, looking at her with deep look. "I would have done it this time too, Hera. Today I would have done it. I would have called him. Through Hermes, as usual. Despite ..." He chuckled. "... ... despite the reluctance of our beloved messenger."

His expression turned serious and severe. "And instead, I will not do it. Probably, he would not have come this time either, but that's not the point. The point is that he does not know and will never know anything of Persephone. For him Persephone does not exist. And she will continue not to exist. "

He laughed aloud. "And so I'll deceive Destiny!"

Then his expression turned deadly serious. "His eyes, wife, will never alight upon Persephone. Nor his thinking. She will never exist for him. Her light will remain here, it will never descend down there, to enlighten his dark world. His dark heart."

* * *

 _No. This never will happen._

 _But…_

 _Oh but why these thoughts, today?_

 _What could happen today able to make this day different from any other day?_

 _Why this sensation, this heartbreaking perception?_

 _Why…_

 _And if it were?_

 _If it were possible?_

 _If it were possible that..._

 _Could it be?_

 _Could it be possible it may exist somewhere a woman able to learn to do it?_

 _To love The One who doesn't know love?_

 _To teach him to love?_

 _To enlighten his dark heart?_

* * *

Hera got closer to her husband, to the King of the Gods.

Her arms encircled her powerful hips.

She clung to him.

Her eyes looked at him from below. The eyes of a woman who relied on her man. Not the eyes of Hera, the Queen of the Gods.

And her voice was the voice of a woman.

Soft. Sweet. Confident in her man.

"You'll make it, my Husband and Lord. You will succeed. And this time, your deception will be consecrated by a cause more than noble."

Zeus nodded with conviction and his arms returned the embrace of his wife.

"Yes, wife. I'll make it. I will deceive Destiny. Because it's right it to be so."

His gaze turned to the blue and shining sky, beyond the majestic columns that surrounded the huge room.

He spoke gravely.

"A woman can do everything. Her love can do everything. But I will not let the light of my daughter get lost in the darkness of the dark world down there. I will not allow its darkness to infect her. Not for giving her vivid and lively light to the dull light of his realm, to his world, she was born. Not for enlightening the plumbeous darkness of his heart."

* * *

 _I have heard be said it can happen._

 _I have heard be said that a woman's smile might give light to the deepest darkness._

 _I have heard be said that the love of a woman is mysterious and unpredictable._

 _That the ways of love are endless and unforeseeable._

 _So then… so then…_

 _Could it be that a little warmth may exist even for me?_

 _Could it be that, up there, somewhere, may come into the world a woman capable of making to shine with a more vivid and lively light the dark light of my realm? Capable, even, of giving light to the plumbeous darkness of my heart?_

 _Could it be that a woman may exist capable of learning to love The One who doesn't know love?_

 _The Lord of the Underworld?_

 _Me?_

* * *

 _ **End Of Chapter One**_

 _ **TBC**_

* * *

 **For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**


	2. Chapter Two

**For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**

 **By Asso**

 **Chapter Two**

* * *

"Hermes!"

The mighty chest of the King of the Gods gave booming voice to the call.

"HERMES!"

Even more thunderous.

One point appeared, away, in the sky. Up there.

It became bigger and bigger and bigger.

In an instant, in _less_ than an instant, it was there, in front of Zeus, who was overlooking on the wide blue of the sky between two columns.

The land of men, blurred and indistinct, far away, over there, at the foot of Olympus, on the slopes of the home of the supernal gods, all around the godly mountain, down to the sea and beyond.

The sky, the earth, the world above.

Zeus' domain.

And, suspended in that infinity, the point was anything but a point, now.

It was a shining figure.

Hovering in the air, motionless in it, yet throbbing of energy in its immobility.

Facing Zeus.

Waiting for his orders.

"It was time! I had to call you twice!"

The figure did not move or speak. It seemed, only, that the wings of his leather sandals, as well as those of his hat, his petasus, started to vibrate more intensely.

Almost peevishly.

Zeus did not bother at all. Indeed he laughed. Uproariously.

His eyes twinkled.

"Go!" His voice echoed in the vast sky. "The time has come."

His voice rose even more powerful. " **Go!** "

The figure waved in the air. It seemed to curl up into the void, as if to gain momentum.

"Call everyone! Right now. It's time."

The figure stopped abruptly. It remained immovable in the air like a huge dragonfly with tiny vibrant wings in human form.

For the first time spoke. In an unsteady voice. A veil of uncertainty and even of fear clearly perceptible in it.

"Everyone?"

Zeus laughed loudly again.

Then a grin appeared on his face. "All those who have been informed."

The figure seemed to breathe in its entirety in the air. As by relief.

Then, suddenly, it snapped. It rose rapidly very high in the sky, as quick as a lightning forged by Hephaestus, stood still for a moment there. Again a point, up there. And then, abruptly, it darted away. Flew off, far away. Got lost into thin air.

The powerful voice of Zeus pursued it.

" **BETWEEN HALF AN HOUR! EVERYONE HERE!** "

Zeus stood still for a moment to watch the intense and glittering blue of the sky, now empty, filled only with the shining light of Helios and with strewn, fluffy puffs of clouds, that ran and unravelled under the waft of the lively and crisp wind.

Then slowly he turned around.

Hera was standing, inside the huge hall. She was looking at him.

Zeus took a few steps toward her.

He stopped.

He watched her with stern gaze, but also oddly tender, in some way.

"In half an hour Demeter will be here with Persephone. In half an hour the ceremony will start. In half an hour everyone will attend the consecration of the new Goddess."

His gaze hardened.

"Everyone."

His face hardened just as his eyes.

They became stone.

"Except one."

Hera nodded gravely. On her face an expression difficult to describe.

Relief? Fear? Hope? Uncertainty? Waiting? Trepidation? Anxiety?

Everything, actually.

All this together.

And even more.

She walked over to her husband. She took his hand.

"He will never know, right, my husband?"

Zeus shook Hera's hand. He nodded in turn.

"He's alone, wife. Totally, completely alone. Ever and forever. No one is by his side. No one wants to have to deal with him. Neither among the Gods, nor among Mortals, nor among the living, nor among the dead. Nor, even, among the ancient deities, those who were prior to us."

Zeus' cerulean eyes flashed with iron certainty. "No one ever will tell him anything."

"But…" Hera's voice trembled a little. There are times when the heart can fail even the Queen of the Gods. "…but something might escape, inadvertently, from the lips of someone. Maybe from a minor God or a minor Goddess. A Nymph, a Naiad, a..."

"It will not happen. Have you ever heard of anyone, Mortal or God, who has talked to him? Tell me, wife, have you ever heard of anyone who would want to do that?"

Hera did not answer. She knew that her husband was right, but the doubt didn't vanish yet from her face.

Zeus stared at her. "Do you think someone will ever be willing or, even more, desirous to do that?"

Hera shook her head. "No. No one. But..."

"And have you ever heard, have you ever gotten the slightest rumour that he has ever moved from there? That he has raised his gloomy eyes to the world above him?"

"No. You're right. But… he might do it!"

"He will not. He knows that everything he might find in this world and everywhere, even in the realm of Poseidon, is fear and contempt and hatred, even. Only his loneliness can keep him company, and only with his loneliness he can stay. Only into the dark and bleak light that comes just from him he can - and wants to - sink his spectral eye."

Hera grabbed with her other hand the other hand of her husband. Both hers squeezed tightly his.

"But... and... and if he wanted to do it? If one day it were possible it to happen? If, despite that since the moment of his crowning as King of the dark realm, he didn't longer let be seen his pale and tough visage into the world of the living and of the warmth of life... if, despite this, one ill-fated day, he were in the mood to look out, into the light, for him dazzling, of the Upperworld? What could happen then? What...?"

Zeus interrupted brusquely his wife's words. "All right. Let us assume that this could happen. And, indeed, as much as highly unlikely, it is really possible."

On Zeus' face there was now an expression that could only be interpreted as repressed fury.

"Let's assume such a fact. Okay. But…" On his proud face a fierce scowl made show of itself. "…not even in this case his darkness will threaten her light."

The frown on his face grew gelid stone.

"Persephone will be guarded at sight. She will not even be able to notice it, but it will be so."

Granite. This was now Zeus' face.

"She will live in the strictest surveillance, although fully free to do and to act, to come and go. She will not be a prisoner, but she will be always and constantly watched. And I personally will take care this to happen."

The granite expression became an ice mask.

"And he, locked away down there, into his lonely lightless realm, won't even be able to notice the new weather course that she will impose upon Earth and Nature. And, even assuming he could have the will to turn upwards his gaze and grasp some perception of this, well, even in this case ..."

Zeus' eyes became as hard and cold as diamonds.

"It will be arduous. Will be difficult. But…"

His hands squeezed strongly, almost painfully, those of Hera.

"… _ **the frightening and malefic eyes of him won't alight on Persephone!**_ "

Hera winced at the mighty and menacing tone of her husband's voice.

" **Never!** "

Zeus' voice went down. It resounded as a low, feral roar.

"Neither today nor ever."

Then it went down even more, in his gaze a threatening, sure twinkle.

"For all eternity."

* * *

 _"But what it's going on? What's the matter today with me? What's this longing within me? This thing that I have never felt?"_

* * *

Hurry, hurry! Speedy, Hermes, my boy! Did you hear him? Did you hear the King of the Gods? In half an hour! Everyone there! There, in the abode of the supernal gods. In his dwelling! The abode of the King of the Gods! For the ceremony! The most sumptuous and significant ceremony that there had ever been and there never would have been! The consecration of his daughter as a goddess! And not an ordinary daughter! Not one of his many children! The daughter of him and of Demeter! The daughter of two of the children of Cronos! And of two of his most powerful sons! The Lady of Nature and the Lord of all the gods!

And a daughter… damn lovely and amiable per se, in addition!

Hurry, hurry! Half an hour is nothing! Half an hour is nothing to gather all together!

But you must do it, my boy! You must do it! And... and without the appalling thought of having to cross the threshold of the most infamous kingdom there may be! In grace to him, in grace to Zeus, you haven't to do that!

But... half an hour! Considering the time that everyone will have to have at his disposal to run to Olympus, half an hour is less than nothing!

Run! Fly! Dart! Faster than the fastest lightning!

Make move your damn wings how never you've made move them!

* * *

 _These thoughts! These unheard of thoughts!_

 _Love?_

 _Love love love love!_

 _For me!_

 _FOR ME!_

 _Oh these absurd thoughts!_

 _And…_

 _And now..._

 _Now this yearning!_

 _This incomprehensible restlessness, this anxiety without peace._

 _This... this sensation. As if... as if something were happening._

 _Something..._

 _But... but what?_

 _What's happening?_

 _ **What's happening to me?**_

* * *

Fly, fly, fly, Hermes, my boy!

So. Yes. So! In this way!

Here Artemis! "Hurry! Hurry, Artemis! Half an hour... no, less than half an hour!"

Here Aphrodite! "Quickly, my lady! Quickly! Not even half an hour to be there!"

And Apollo. "Hurry, my Lord! There is less than half an hour!"

And Athena.

And Dionysus.

And Hephaestus.

And Aeolus.

And Poseidon.

And Amphitrite.

And Ares

And...

All!

All! All!

Gods and demigods!

And centaurs!

And nymphs!

And naiads!

And satyrs!

And...

ALL! EVERYONE!

My wings swirl.

They rumble.

Almost it seems to me that their roar is such that it can be heard even...

 **Even under there!**

* * *

 _What... what...?_

 _And ..._

 _What is this?_

 _What is this noise?_

 _This... this rumbling?_

 _There is no noise, in my kingdom._

 _There is only silence, in my kingdom._

 _From where does this roar come?_

 _From up there?_

 _But how is it possible it can make itself heard even here?_

 _Nothing penetrates down here from the world up there._

 _Nothing. Whether it is dead, or living creatures, or things._

 _Or noises._

 _Nothing. That I do not want to see._

 _Nothing. That I do not want to hear._

 _That... I... do... not... want... to... hear..._

 _Is it something...?_

 _Something that I_ _ **want**_ _to hear?_

 _Is there perhaps, up there, something... that my heart...?_

 _But what heart? I have no heart!_

 _I have darkness there where there should be my heart!_

 _And yet..._

 _These thoughts..._

 _This restlessness never felt before..._

 _This... this longing..._

 _Is there anything in this heart of darkness... is there anything in it that knows something that I do not?_

 _Something... that he wants me to hear?_

 _Something..._

 _That it wants me to see?_

 _To_ _…_ _see_ _…_

 _And I do._

 _For the first time since I am down here, I do._

 _I raise my eyes upward._

 _Towards the world up there._

 _I watch._

 _I can see everywhere, if I want._

 _Every hidden corner of my kingdom._

 _And_ _beyond_ _._

 _Beyond._

 _Beyond the rocks._

 _Beyond the impenetrable ground mantle that surrounds my kingdom._

 _I can see anywhere_

 _Earth._

 _Sky._

 _Sea._

 _Because my kingdom is the beginning and the end._

 _And nothing can be precluded me._

 _I can see the life before it becomes death. I can see death before it becomes life._

 _In me everything begins._

 _In me everything ends._

 _And of all things, if I want, I can have cognizance._

 _Observing the lives of mortals to issue the final judgment, the last word, if necessary, after the judgment of my three infernal judges._

 _Taking charge of the living! - their sufferings, their joys, their sorrows ... their sins ... their cruelties... this is something that only the darkness that exists in me can tolerate and absorb._

 _Only I can do it._

 _I. The lord of darkness and nothingness. The lord of silence. The lord of oblivion._

 _But what an immense weight!_

 _What a terrible suffering!_

 _I am the repository of all human suffering._

 _The repository of all good._

 _The repository of all evil._

 _And I always will be._

 _For all eternity the evil of the world will give even more shade to the shadow of my heart made of dark shadow._

 _ **I. Can. See. All. The. Good. And. All. The. Evil. In. The. World.**_

 _ **I CAN SEE EVERYTHING.**_

 _Zeus may order that the world view that he rules shows itself to his eyes in the enchanted mirror of the crystal clear waters of the basins of the fountains of his lofty and airy abode, but I can do a lot more._

 _This is one of the many greve prices that I must pay for being who I am. Something that neither Zeus nor any other of the Gods could endure and that they don't even suspect I have to pay. The gift, tragic and terrible, of knowing everything, of seeing it all - every thing, every life - because only in this way I can judge that life._

 _And every time I look at, every time I scrutinize a life, the burden of that entire life rips my intimate being._

 _Adds darkness to darkness_ _._

 _This is why I never watch beyond what I have to watch._

 _This is the reason why I don't lift up my eyes to the world above if not for inspecting and analyzing the lives of people that I must judge, the track that they have left behind in that world of light and hope, doomed to be so many times the prelude to a world of perennial punishment and suffering._

 _But today_ _..._

 _Today_ _..._

 _I want to watch beyond._

 _I want to watch not lives, but the world above._

 _The world of life._

 _The source of this noise able to arrive even down here._

 _And_ _its reason_ _._

 _Maybe... maybe the same reason of this incomprehensible turmoil, this obscure yearning, inside me._

 _And nothing can be precluded to me, to the eye of the one who governs the beginning and the end._

 _And my gaze rises._

 _Pierces the rocks._

 _Pierces the earth._

 _Pierces the water._

 _And I_ _see_ _._

* * *

Oh finally. Incredible, but I have made it.

They're all here. All!

They flock to enter.

I would like to rest. But I still can not.

I have to put order in the ranks.

And so I fly again, without rest, from one row to another, from one group to another.

My little tired wings still roar mightily.

They must rest.

But later. Later.

For now, they must still rumble.

* * *

 _Hermes!_

 _It is his wings!_

 _And... all these people!_

 _Gods. Demigods. And centaurs. And nymphs. And naiads. And satyrs. And..._

 _All._

 _Everyone._

 _But what's happening?_

 _What do they do, all these more or less so-called superior beings at the gates of the palace of my… venerable and august brother?_

* * *

Okay. That's enough. More than that I can not do.

Now it's time to let people come in and, obviously, above all, her. **HER!**

Well, all right. Along with her mother, of course.

And when ever would Demeter want to detach herself from her?

"Hold on! Wait for my dispositions! Oh... ahem... I mean the dispositions of our King, the supreme Zeus."

Is my voice sounded powerful enough? Well, I think so. Everyone stopped, waiting.

Including Demeter and her daughter. Yeah. They too. Hand in hand, of course. Nice life, eh, girl? Oh yes. Nice life. See a bit , Demeter, not to overdo it. And if, one day, she - your daughter - would grow tired of being your docile child?

I shake my head. Useless words, empty words, if allowed to get out of my mind, free, in the wind.

Demeter... well yes, honestly... Demeter is mother of nature, but stepmother of her daughter. And she doesn't even realize.

Well. That's enough. The messenger of Zeus has thought enough. Let's see how the Lord of the Gods intends to proceed.

Inside, my boy. To receive his orders.

There he is. Ah, perfect! As it was to be expected.

He is sitting majestically on his throne. With his wife placed on her own throne, at his side.

How will she take all that? The consecration ceremony of the daughter of another of her husband's betrayals, and, in addition, a betrayal by no means a small thing, this time! Mh. But … what a strange expression on her face. Haughty, sure. As usual. But … nah … it can not be sweetness. It can not be … trepidation!

Stop it, boy! Just think to do your duty!

My voice rises loud and strong

"Everyone ready to perform our Lord's dispositions!"

Then I turn towards him.

My wings stop spinning. I land with one fluid motion. Standing in front of him and his wife, the Queen of the Gods.

"My lord?"

His hand rises, with the index raised. I do not know; by now I should have become accustomed, but this imperious and powerful gesture from him... it will never cease to inspire awe in me.

And - I think so - in all the others. Without exception. Except...

Mh, better not to think about the only God who would not find Zeus' gesture for anything intimidating!

Better not to think!

And, thanks to Zeus - exactly thanks to him! - he is not here now! Maybe, as usual, he would never come, but even the slightest risk of his arrival was avoided.

 **He does not know anything!**

* * *

 _But what is happening?_

 _This is a ceremony in style._

 _No one is missing._

 _No... one... is... missing..._

 _Why haven't I been informed?_

 _ **Why I do not know anything?**_

* * *

"Everyone inside! First the major gods, then minor ones, then all the others. The major gods must go sit on their thrones, while the others have to crowd at the sides of the hall, to make wing to the entrance."

* * *

 _The entrance? The entrance of whom?_

* * *

My wings vibrate powerfully again.

I rise up in the air and gain the entry. I stop, hovering in high in front of the crowd.

My gaze sweeps over everyone.

"You have heard the words of our King."

There is no need of anything else.

The crowd flows smoothly into the great hall of the council.

Poseidon, Vesta, Ares, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Apollo, Athena, Artemis, Dionysus...

All the great gods gradually reach their thrones, and even I, finally. For last. But I do it.

While all the others flock to the sides.

Now is silence.

Our eyes - the eyes of all - are pointed towards the two huge columns that delimit the entrance.

Zeus' voice rises mighty.

"Come in."

* * *

 _Who?_

 _Who must come in?_

* * *

Here we are. The show starts.

It promises to be a great show.

I'm almost tempted to lift me on my wings again to get an aerial and all-embracing view of everything from above.

Oh, here they are.

Mother and daughter.

* * *

 _Demeter?_

 _But… but, sure. Her throne is empty, just like mine._

 _Per force._

 _I'm here, in my kingdom._

 _She is there, at the entrance._

 _And she is not alone._

 _There is someone with her._

 _A veiled figure, a bit smaller than her._

 _Who holds her hand._

 _And it is definitely a woman._

 _The shapeless, long white tunic that covers her fails at all to hide her soft curves._

* * *

Okay. Here we are. Zeus has stood up.

Damn, how mighty and proud he appears!

Well, he has every reason.

Oh enough, my boy! Make your wings remain still and stop thinking. And, rather, stay to listen to the words of the Lord of the Gods.

* * *

"Demeter, reach your throne and leave Persephone alone. Hers and hers alone must be the scene."

* * *

 _Persephone? That's her name?_

* * *

Oh oh, so you have to leave her alone, dear Demeter? Oh what a pity! I can see your discontent. But, what can you do? Things are so. It's Zeus who spoke.

Okay, so, this way. Reach your throne, leaving your daughter alone, standing in front of everyone.

Oh I see - everyone sees - your reluctance, but you have to do it.

And, if I may say, I, and not only I, feel some sort of pleasurable contentment in seeing your annoyance.

Stay quiet, my wings, stay quiet. Do not vibrate so much, please, by content.

* * *

 _Persephone. How... how sweet._

* * *

"Persephone, look at me. Look at your father."

* * *

 _Your father? She is the daughter of my brother?_

* * *

"Look at the God who planted the seed from which you were born in the loins of your mother Demeter."

* * *

 _What? She is the daughter of my brother and of our sister Demeter?_

* * *

"Watch me."

* * *

 _A Goddess, so. And a major Goddess. Daughter of two of the greatest Gods. Demeter. Unbelievable! Unbelievable! She! The pure, the chaste, the misandrous Demeter! And... and Zeus! Nothing surprising, with him! But... Demeter! And who knows, Hera! How many contumelies! A new, important Goddess born, just for a change, from her husband and from another woman! And from Demeter, on top of that._

 _And it is clear why they are all gathered here. It is the day of her consecration as a Goddess. And she is an extremely important Goddess._

 _And I have not been informed._

 _I have always been informed by my brother._

 _This time I have not been informed._

 _Why haven't I been informed?_

* * *

"Persephone, listen."

* * *

 _Never have I come. Much more than probably not even this time I would have come._

 _Why haven't I been informed?_

 _I know I am not liked, just to talk euphemistically. I know nobody wants to have anything to do with me, that I am worse than the plague for everyone._

 _But everyone knows - Zeus, my brother, knows it very well - that I have no wish to hold up the afraid looks of my brothers and my sisters, as well as anyone else._

 _And so why?_

 _Why, for the first time, still knowing with practically absolute certainty that I would have remained far away this time too... why haven't I been informed?_

* * *

"This is your day, Persephone, my daughter. This is the day when you will be consecrated for what you are. A Goddess. A great Goddess."

* * *

 _So, it is so. It is just so._

 _Why haven't I been informed?_

* * *

"Show your visage, Persephone. Show everyone the beauty of the Goddess that you are."

* * *

Not just me. Everyone does it. Everyone holds the breath as she raises her hands to push aside the veil covering her face and her whole head. Oh sure, I, Hermes, like everyone else, except ... except for one who has never seen her and who here is not, all of us know her beauty. But today - now - it will be different. And she knows it. Today her beauty will be blazing.

There! There!

She discovered her face! Oh Uranus! It... it is... it is not…

* * *

 _Uranus! It is not possible! It's impossible it can exist!_

 _There can not be such a marvel!_

* * *

 ** _For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?_**

 _ **End of Chapter Two**_

 _ **TBC**_


	3. Chapter Three

**For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**

 **By Asso**

 **Chapter Three**

* * *

She could not help it. She hung her head in embarrassment. In shame, even.

Everyone was watching her.

Everyone.

All the Great Gods.

In addition to the whole world of the minor Gods, of the nymphs, of the naiads, of the centaurs, of the demigods...

Everyone.

 _Everyone!_

Yes. True. That was her day.

The long awaited day.

But... it was terrible!

It was terrible being there. Alone. Without the comforting grasp of her mother's hand. There. Standing. In front of everyone.

Alone.

In the centre of that immense hall!

With her mother... with her mother there! Sitting on her throne! As the goddess that she was! Goddess among Gods!

Looking at her like... like the other Great Gods!

Her...

Young, small, insignificant new Goddess!

Newcomer – _Newbie! Sheepish, ill at ease, on hot coals! -_ in that... in that gathering of Greats!

In that gigantic and majestic lounge!

Open on the infinite sky. Overlooking the infinite sea. Above the infinite earth.

The abode of the supernal Gods!

The dwelling of the sky Gods and the sea Gods and the earth Gods!

The palace of Zeus!

Her father. Sure!

But at that moment... at that moment just the Lord of the Gods!

The Lord of all!

His booming voice made her jump. Literally. Dramatically increasing her embarrassment and her discomfort.

"Persephone! Up your head!"

She complied. Immediately. With a sudden snap and definitely anything but appropriate to the dignity that a Goddess should have. Her eyes filled with reverential fear. Her hands looking for a place to stay.

Fortunately, her father's voice softened. Indeed, it became gently hortatory.

"Do not feel uncomfortable, my daughter. Do not be afraid. This is the world to which you belong."

A soft, low laugh echoed through the voice of her father, the father who had always been so gentle with her, the few times she had seen him, but so distant, so... so Lord of the Gods!

"Watch your equals, my daughter."

The voice became mighty again.

"Look at them! One by one. They are your family. The family of the Great Gods, exactly as you are."

And the puissance of the voice grew even more.

"Show them your face, my daughter. Show them the face of the Goddess of Spring, of the flowers, of the light that makes the world bloom again. Because this thou shalt be. So I, Zeus, your father, Lord of everything and everyone, consecrate you to be."

Persephone almost felt herself sinking.

There! It was made! She was the Goddess she was meant to be!

And as such she now had to show herself and appear to all members of the Sacred Divine Council of which her father, the great Zeus, had just called her to be part.

The Goddess of Spring! Of the flowers! Of... of the light that makes flourish again the world! O holy Uranus! Holy Gaia who everything generated! What... what a vast, sublime task! What an immeasurable divine gift had been placed in her young, fragile, uncertain hands!

And... unexpected, unfathomable, almost unfinished... an odd thought, a strange unspoken question, made its way into her mind.

Who... who ever would have been able to help her in that huge task? Who would have been able and eager to teach her?

Her mother? But her mother, the great Demeter, was... was Demeter! She had the power! She was born with power. Power was something innate in her. She was Demeter, one of the great Gods, one of the daughters of Cronos, one of those in whose hands the Destiny itself had placed power, after the great war against the Titans. She, her mother Demeter, could not understand her own fear of having the power!

Who? Who ever…?

But that thought did not even have time to fully reveal itself.

The booming voice of her father rang out again.

It echoed imposingly in the room, deep in the sky, on the distant land, on the sea, in the depths of its waters.

"Show yourself!"

Persephone raised her eyes in fear. She looked at her father.

She looked at him as he, standing before his throne, with his arms crossed on his mighty chest, was watching sternly her.

She looked at his wilful mouth, outcropping in the thick of his gray beard.

She looked at that mouth that was speaking to her.

The mouth of the Lord of the World.

"This is the supreme assembly of which, from now on, you are part, Persephone, Goddess of the sweet light of Spring. Let the radiant light of your beauty illuminate the faces and the hearts of those who sit on the thrones of their power. You are one of them, from now on, and... "

Zeus' hand sprung up. His fingers snapped. Hephaestus, the supreme maker, nodded and a throne - gorgeous, bright, radiant, made of pink marble and adorned with flowers carved in stone and of a thousand colours - suddenly appeared beside the throne of Demeter, magically gaining space for itself among all the others.

"... you will sit from now on your throne, the throne of the bright Lady of the, until now unknown, invigorating light of the Spring."

And, that said, without giving her even the time and the way to internalize fully the deep meaning of his words, her father, the supreme Zeus, advanced imperiously towards her.

He stopped and stood firm, tall and mighty, in front of her.

He looked at her with austere pride and yet with manifest sweetness.

And then... then he took her by the hand and led her.

He took her before the hemicycle of the thrones on which the Great Gods were sitting.

He took her to one of the extremes of the hemicycle and, still holding her by the hand, he made her walk slowly all along the hemicycle in the silence that reigned sovereign.

He made her stop and remain firm for some moments in front of every throne.

And in front of every throne, in front of each of the Gods and Goddesses who sat on them, she, with modesty and apprehension, bowed her head, Presenting herself - presenting her light, her beauty - to the God or the Goddess who on that throne sat.

And, at her bow of the head, each God and each Goddess bowed the head in turn, in greeting and in welcome, and no one uttered a word.

Nobody.

Except two Goddesses.

Aphrodite.

Sweet was her smile, while the Goddess of Beauty and Love spoke to her.

"I have seen you grow and get more and more beautiful, my girl and now, on this day ..." The voice of the Goddess who all males, Mortals and Gods, led to dream, shone of a gentle laugh. "...now... well it looks like now I've found an extremely dangerous rival." The silvery laugh of Aphrodite sounded again. "As if that damn girl, just to speak so obviously, of the bride of my son Eros, that damn Psyche, was not enough already!"

Aphrodite. The Goddess of Love and Beauty. So she spoke to her, who could not do anything else but blush.

And the other Goddess ... Oh Gaia!... the other Goddess who spoke was Hera! The Queen of the Gods! The wife of Zeus! The one who would have every reason to show, on that day, her harshness toward her, who was the result of her husband's betrayal, the supreme Zeus.

But Hera's words were not rancorous.

In truth, the Lady of the Gods had always been rather supercilious with her, but not rough, for nothing at all; she had shown no harshness towards her, indeed not infrequently she had smiled at her, something that few others could boast of having been gratified with.

But now... now... now the words of Hera, the Lady of the Gods, the wife of the one who, by betraying his august bride, had inseminated her mother Demeter with his mighty and immortal seed, overcame every possible sweet Persephone's dream.

"Welcome among us, sweet girl." And Hera smiled a broad smile, in saying this! "You are sweet and marvellously beautiful, and, with you, a new and brighter world will be born."

And Persephone perfectly sensed the sincerity of the words of Hera.

And she blushed even more.

And she felt overwhelmed by the most immense joy.

So much so that she not even noticed the dazzling smile of pride that her mother gave her as her father made her linger before her throne.

So much so that she almost did not notice that her father was driving her to sit on her own throne.

On the throne of the Goddess of Spring.

 **On her own throne!**

Next to that of her mother!

She! Persephone!

She! Just her!

 _ **Goddess!**_

Among the Gods and Goddesses!

But the booming voice of her father brought her back from the dream. To make her sink into a dream even more dream.

" **GODS AND GODDESSES OF OLYMPUS! APPLAUD THE NEW GODDESS!** "

And so it was. The applause - unanimous - rose in the huge room.

But it was not over!

" **AND YOU, ALL OF YOU - PEOPLE OF OLYMPUS - WELCOME AND GLORIFY THE GODDESS OF THE LIGHT OF THE SPRING!"**

The powerful voice of her father. Again. And immediately after...

The hosannas! The cheers! Of welcome!

For her!

On the part of the entire immense crowd that filled the great hall and the surrounding fields of the abode of the Gods.

 _ **Her dwelling!**_

Then she felt the warm of his father's smile on her.

And she roused from her dream.

And she smiled at him.

Her shining warm smile.

And her father nodded softly and with pride.

And, slowly and majestically, he regained his own throne.

He sat down, mighty and proud, on it.

His voice echoed in the high sky.

"The proclamation was made. The new Goddess is now with us. Now ..." And his joyful and powerful laugh resounded into the high vault of heaven. "... now it is time to celebrate!"

His hand went up, in the silence of all.

"Go, o you who're not part of this High Council. Get out from the abode of the Gods, from the abode ..." His voice seemed to smile. "... of Persephone."

His grinning face turned towards her for one moment, addressing right after the crowd again.

"Out there in the fields, in the meadows, along the verdant banks of rivers and streams, around the lakes and to the sources, among the woods, fragrant and delicious food, and refreshing rivers of spiced red wine are ready for all. Go and celebrate the new Goddess."

Then, once more, his leonine head turned to smile to her. "While we, the Olympians..." Zeus' haughty gaze sparkled. "...will feast her official arrival among us savouring delicious ambrosia and raising to her our goblets full of redolent nectar."

The smile faded. The face of the King of the Gods became serious and austere as never, as he turned again to the throng. "And to perform so the ultimate act of Persephone's consecration."

And people hastened to obey.

And while everyone was hurrying to get out, while, amid the querulous and excited chatter of all, the fields surrounding the abode of the Olympian Gods became swiftly empty, Zeus and all other Gods and Goddesses remained sitting on their thrones, until silence reigned out and inside the olympian palace.

She too, Persephone.

Waiting, almost in disbelief, for the coming event, the one that would consecrate her definitely.

For the moment when she would be allowed to drink the beverage of the Gods.

At that moment her immortality would be enshrined forever.

An immortality made of eternal youth.

From that time on and forever, she would be… Persephone.

The sempiternal Goddess of Spring.

Eternally young, eternally beautiful.

Eternally as she was now.

And the moment came.

In the most total silence, Zeus stood up.

His aquiline gaze ranged over everyone.

Then, his muscular and powerful arm rose.

And his stentorian voice boomed.

"Hebe, bring the cups."

And Hebe, legitimate daughter of the King and Queen of the Gods, Lady of Youth and cupbearer of the Gods, bestower of everlasting youthfulness, appeared at the entrance of the enormous hall, between the two tall, huge pillars that delimited it.

In each of her raised hands, well visible, a cup overflowing with a fragrant and arcanely glittering drink.

The nectar of Gods.

The source of their eternal youth.

She advanced slowly until to stop exactly in the centre of the vast hemicycle of thrones, and there she stood, her hands extended forward and up, to show everyone the cups.

And just then Zeus started to walk in turn, slowly and majestically, until he reached her, stopping just in front her.

They looked an instant at each other and then, finally, Hebe handed him the cups, stepping back soon after, as her gaze ran through the hall until to settle on Persephone, sitting, red in the face, in trepidation, on her throne.

Zeus took the cups and turned, holding them in his hand before him.

He watched significantly Persephone.

He advanced towards her throne.

He stopped in front of it.

He did not speak. Simply he nodded imperiously his head.

Persephone jumped up, in front of her father, her anxious face raised towards him.

Wordlessly, he handed her a cup.

She took it with both her shaking hands.

He nodded, solemn and stern.

He brought his cup to his lips.

He took a long sip, lifting his chin.

Then, he bowed his head towards her, lowering the cup, and looked at her in waiting.

And she, slowly, trepidatious, in turn brought her cup to her lips and, with closed eyes, she drank, throwing her head back.

And the inebriating warmth of the divine liquid went down her throat and more down.

More, more down.

Until to her most intimate being, until to her godly essence.

And she was, finally and completely, Persephone.

The Persephone from that moment on she would forever be.

" **HOSANNA TO PERSEPHONE!** "

The powerful and bombastic voice of her father made her open her eyes.

With the cup in her trembling hands she looked at him.

She looked at his fierce and proud smile. She listened rapt to his words.

"You are the Goddess of the world that is renewed, which blooms and blooms again, eternally, in the freshness of nature that buds to life. This is the form of the season you will bring into the world, this is its appearance. Your appearance, my daughter, your appearance of now, of the day of your sixteenth birthday, which, just for this reason, has been chosen as your day, the day of your consecration. The marvellous, burgeoning, fresh appearance of the youthfulness just blossomed. And this is the aspect that you will have forever. This is the appearance - and the substance - with which everyone, Gods and Mortals, will know you."

He raised his cup well at the top.

Turned around.

His imposing gaze enveloped all present.

"Stand up, o Gods and Goddesses of Olympus! Stand up! Hosanna to Persephone, I said! And hosannas to Persephone everyone must cry out! Stand up! To celebrate her and to celebrate together with her the last thing that it was necessary for her, for the Goddess she is now, Great Goddess among the Great Gods, to have. Lift up you too your cups and drink! Drink with her and to her! To the new and eternally blooming Immortal who sits among us! To the Goddess of the Spring!"

And everyone, absolutely everyone, Gods and Goddesses, stood up.

And they raised high the cup full of divine nectar that Hebe in the meantime had made appear in the hand of each of them.

And, sitting on her own throne, she too, Hebe, raised her own cup.

And all cried together.

"Hosanna to Persephone!"

And all drank.

Together with Persephone and for her and to her.

And Persephone drank together with the others, with eyes wide open, this time, savouring, incredulous and happy, her great and unique moment.

Then, as she looked blissful and dreamy at those who were now her companions, at her family, those with whom from now on she would share the path, there were long moments of sweet silence.

A silence full of things, thoughts, expectations.

As long as the joyful and powerful voice of her father broke it.

"Very well. Now everything is done. Really and in full. Now it's time to indulge in the pleasure of eating and conversing."

He laughed aloud.

"Sit down, friends and comrades, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, fathers and mothers."

He snapped his fingers and dishes filled with ambrosia appeared on the dinner tables suddenly sprung in front of each.

"Sit down and eat. And speak. Of futile and beautiful things. Celebrate. With lightness and joy."

And so it was.

And even Persephone sat on her throne, really hers, now. And forever.

And, finally, she allowed herself the luxury to relax, to let free to roam her own thoughts, while all the others, all of her new companions of life - including her mother, including her father - immersed themselves in food and cheerful conversation, without bothering of her anymore.

And then - just then - while, quiet and satisfied and contented, she savoured for the first time the divine ambrosia and the beginning of the new course of her life, she became aware of something.

She realized something that previously she had not been able to notice, in the overpowering euphoria and anxiety of what was happening to her.

Not all the Gods had toasted with her and for her.

Not they all.

She had not perceived nor noticed it, but...

When she had passed, led by her father, in front of every throne…

When her father had made her stop in front of each of them…

He had made her slid in a hurry before a throne, without stopping in front of it.

She hadn't even notice it.

But now...

Now...

In the pleasant and welcome peace of the moment...

In her wondrous sensation of appeasement and satisfaction…

Now… she noticed it.

It was located to the left of the throne of Hera.

And it was a strange throne.

Made of dark ebony and white marble.

And totally unadorned.

And nevertheless it looked powerful.

Awe-inspiring.

It gave off an aura of...

Of oppressive darkness.

Of obscure might.

And it was empty.

* * *

 _ **For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**_

 _ **End of Chapter Three**_

 _ **TBC**_


	4. Chapter 4

**For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**

 **By Asso**

 **Chapter Four**

* * *

The chariot of Helios was settling down there.

Nyx - The Night - was slowly obscuring the vast sky.

Everything was quiet.

All was peace.

Zeus stepped forward between the columns which were the majestic portal of his divine palace.

He leaned out on the immensity of his domain.

He was alone.

All were gone.

Only he had remained.

To think about that wonderful day.

The day of the consecration of his beautiful daughter.

He was alone.

In the quiet of the dying day.

In the peace of the coming night.

Alone.

In waiting.

For him.

And he came.

* * *

Falling asleep?

And how was it possible?

That day... _her_ day!

Goddess! She was a Goddess! A… a _Great_ Goddess!

The Goddess of the light of the new season that she would bring into the world!

Equal... equal to her mother!

 _Her mother!_

She would have made possible the seasons!

She would have completed and made bigger the work of her mother!

She would have been Persephone!

The Goddess of Spring!

Forever young!

All time...

Always beautiful!

Beautiful!

So Aphrodite... so Hera had told her!

That she was beautiful!

And Hera had said that she would have brought a new and shining light in the world!

Falling asleep.

Impossible, after a day like this.

The ceremony...

Her father, the supreme Zeus...

So proud... so proud of her!

For her!

And... her mother too! Her mother Demeter!

And the divine nectar!

And... and the ambrosia!

And all the Great Gods; and the minor Gods; and...

And everyone!

EVERYONE!

Singing hosanna to her!

How was it possible to sleep after a day like this?!

And how was it possible to sleep... to try to relax, at the thought of the labours of tomorrow?

Her new labours?

And how...

Persephone sat bolt upright on the bed.

Something...

What was it?

Something in her chest...

Inside...

In the heart.

Again.

That strange, absurd thought...

That question...

Unexpressed...

Vague...

Undefined...

And yet so vivid...

Inside her.

In her mind.

In her soul.

 _Who would teach her?_

Who?

WHO?

And Persephone found herself standing upright.

In the moonlight which cut through her room as a silver sabre.

Who? Who ever...?

And vivid, powerful...

Almost... almost distressing...

An image...

An image in her mind...

That throne...

That empty throne.

Of white marble and black ebony.

That obscure throne.

* * *

Zeus slowly raised his head.

Behind him.

On that throne.

It was impossible not to feel his presence.

* * *

Persephone had understood.

She knew who should have been sitting on that throne.

She knew... she knew everything about him.

She had never seen him.

Thanks to Uranus she had never seen him!

But she knew who he was.

She knew _**what**_ he was!

 _Oh Uranus! Uranus, Uranus!_

 _Thanks thanks thanks!_

 _Thank you for having prevented him from being sitting on that throne, while my father was consecrating me!_

 _Thanks, Uranus!_

 _Thank you, Gaia!_

 _Thank you for having preserved me from his horrible sight!_

 _Thank you for not having allowed his maleficent gaze to alight on me!_

 _Thank you!_

 _THANK YOU!_

 _Thank you for having made sure that throne to remain empty!_

That throne...

THAT THRONE!

Persephone began to go up and down her room.

Agitated.

Restless.

Shaken up.

 _Shaken up..._

She stopped short in front of the window.

She looked out into the silvery light of the moon.

But…

But why - _**why!**_ \- that empty throne continued to stand out in her mind?

Why...

Why she seemed to feel... far away... on that throne...

His horrifying presence?

* * *

Slowly Zeus turned around.

Here he is.

Exactly how he remembered him.

* * *

Why... why she seemed to see… to see _him?_

* * *

Dark.

Tall.

Mighty.

Raven hair.

Alabaster face.

And alabaster hands.

Resting, quiet and strong, on the armrests of his throne.

The only things that his long black shapeless mantle let see.

Besides his eyes.

Those eyes of him.

Those two cold, obscure and mesmeric pits made of dark nothingness.

* * *

Dark.

Tall.

Mighty.

Raven hair.

Alabaster face.

And alabaster hands.

Resting, quiet and strong, on the armrests of his throne.

The only things that his long black shapeless mantle let see.

Besides his eyes.

 _His eyes…_

The eyes she had heard to talk about.

That she had never seen.

That she… that she seemed to see, now. As if they were showing off for her.

 _Just for her._

Two cold, obscure and mesmeric pits made of dark nothingness.

* * *

Overflowing with a dark fascination.

* * *

Overflowing with… overflowing with…

What...

What was...

What was that thing she felt?

What...

What was that... that… that…

 ** _That dark fascination!?_**

* * *

 ** _For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?_**

 ** _End_** ** _of Chapter Four_**

 ** _TBC_**


	5. Chapter Five

**For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**

 **By Asso**

 **Chapter Five**

* * *

Zeus' cerulean eyes darted on the black figure sitting silent, as if waiting, on the marble throne and ebony.

"It is really a long time, Hades."

"Indeed. Really a long time, Zeus. Longer than time itself."

No. His eldest brother hadn't changed, just as his voice.

Soft, restrained.

Almost hushed.

Zeus had always wondered how such a velvety voice could sound so chilling.

Just like now.

But he was Zeus.

The one who had been able to dismember Cronos.

And to deceive and condemn to eternal nothingness the appalling shape sitting now, black and motionless, on that lonely throne of marble and ebony.

Sinister and grim, sure, such as to inspire fear in whomever.

Certainly.

But not in him. Not in the King of the Gods.

Mighty.

Certainly.

Maybe as powerful as him. The King of the Gods.

But not more than him. The King of the Gods.

He raised his head so proud.

"Why are you here?" And his voice resounded anything but beaming by brotherly affection.

The diaphanous right hand of the black figure rose. It waved quietly in the air.

"To congratulate you, of course, my brother."

Hateful! Hateful was that voice calm and low.

Hateful the taunting jeering that in it leaked out.

"What do you mean, Hades?"

"You know, brother. You know"

The dark form rose slowly. It stood erect before its throne.

"Persephone... that's her name, right?... the daughter whom our chaste sister Demeter - chaste, but not too much, evidently - gave you."

A shadow, only a pale shadow of a pale mocking smile on that pale mouth, on those pale lips.

"Congratulations, my brother. My most heartfelt and sincere congratulations. Really I've never seen more beautiful creature."

Courtesy? Unknown word to the King of the Gods. The King of the Gods could afford to be rough if and when he wanted.

With anyone.

Even with him.

With the brother he would rather not have.

 _Especially_ with him.

 _And especially now._

And especially in the face of the wrath that the transparent sarcasm of that damn brother aroused in him. In the face of the wrath of having failed to cheat fate, as he had loudly proclaimed that he would be able to do.

Because Hades, that cursed, was there!

Aware of all!

He had seen all!

 **All!**

And was subtly deriding him because fully conscious of what he, Zeus, would have wanted to do and hadn't managed to do!

 _ **Courtesy?**_

 _ **COURTESY!?**_

 _ **May his rude words push that damn and unwelcome brother to go back to hole up in his beloved Underworld!**_

The right place for him!

The _only_ place for him!

"Allow me to say, my dear brother, that you're not an expert in this field. What beautiful creature could you have seen, ever, in your dark realm? All you can be versed in, it's ugliness and monstrosity."

The black shape seemed to shrivel.

And Zeus gloated.

He gloated because he realized he had hit the mark.

And he piled it on.

"Beauty is not thing for you." Zeus snorted. "Persephone's beauty is not thing for you."

Still a stab. The worst. "You weren't supposed to see her."

But the very moment he pronounced these words, Zeus realized he had made the biggest of mistakes.

It was a human saying, that's true, and Zeus was more than justified for not knowing it, but surely it would have been definitely good for him being aware of what it meant _'more than enough is too much'_.

The eyes of darkness flashed obscure.

The bloodless lips contorted in a sardonic grimace.

And Zeus realized in a flash what was going to happen, what it would be the reaction of that damned dark brother who was at all out of the patterns of his tidy Olympus.

Changed? No. Not at all. His sombre oldest brother had not changed for anything and in anything. At the most, he had become more unsettling than it had been before.

As in his mocking, unnerving laugh.

Low.

And chilling.

Like everything of him.

The black laughter quieted slowly. The alabaster face was back to be the usual icy mask.

"I know, Zeus, my powerful brother. I know."

The dark figure stepped forward towards Zeus.

It stopped a few steps away.

"You, in fact, haven't informed me, this time."

Those eyes, those eyes wide open into nothingness, narrowed.

"You haven't told me anything about the consecration ceremony of the new Goddess, as well as about her birth itself."

The eyes became two slits of bottomless obscurity in the opaline white of that visage of ice.

* * *

Persephone gasped.

What was happening?

What obscure insane threat carried it with it, the silvery light of the moon?

Those eyes...

Those eyes, lightless and timeless...

 _ **His**_ eyes!

There were not!

They did not exist!

They were just in her mind!

But why did her mind see them?

 _ **Why!?**_

* * *

There have been no half-words.

"You wanted to conceal Persephone from me, Zeus."

There have been not.

"You shan't have Persephone, Hades."

* * *

Those eyes!

 **THOSE EYES!**

* * *

And, at that moment, at those words of Zeus… it happened.

Zeus would never have thought that it could happen.

But it happened.

The tall, powerful, dark figure wavered.

Moved back.

Sought its throne.

Sat heavily on it.

Seemed to curl up in its large, shapeless black mantle, as if to seek refuge in it.

And sighed.

Deeply.

While the eyes made of darkness did shut, as to conceal any thought that was stirring in the brain behind them.

Zeus did not wonder what those thoughts might be. What mattered to him at that time was that Hades had recoiled patently at his peremptory statement.

He seemed to have withdrawn into himself.

And that meant...

Zeus rejoiced inwardly.

That meant that he had won!

Yes! He had won!

Once more his dismal brother had accepted his fate of woe!

And he, Zeus, had kept his promise to his wife. He had not been able to fool Destiny, had failed to keep Hades away from the ceremony, but once again he had managed to bend him to his will.

And not by fraud, this time! But with his might of King of the Gods!

He had won!

 **HE HAD WON!**

But, then…

Just then…

Just as he was starting to enjoy his victory…

Those eyes reopened.

Abruptly.

And they sparkled.

Literally.

Their darkness seemed to glow.

* * *

 _ **What did they want, those eyes glowing with uncannily glamorous darkness, from her?**_

* * *

The dark shape stood up again.

The broad mantle whirled like the wing of a huge bat.

The dark, low voice made itself be heard once again in the more and more fresh air of the growing night.

Calm.

Almost serene.

"So is it so?"

Zeus came forward, dominating with effort his disappointment and frustration.

"It's so what, brother?"

The alabaster face of Hades bent down for a second.

Then it lifted.

Those eyes open in the nothing seemed to let glimpse for a moment the nothing that they had fatally to contemplate. That only they were able to withstand.

Zeus found himself having to suppress the shiver that that nothing aroused.

Soft, softer than ever, was Hades' voice.

"You know the answer, Zeus, o my mighty brother. Or, more exactly, you know the answer of Destiny."

* * *

Persephone wrung her hands.

Why could she see those eyes?

Why could she hear... could she hear that voice?

So low. So soft.

So darkly...

 _So darkly fascinating._

What did all this mean? And just on that very evening? On the evening of her wonderful day?

She had no answer.

Who...

Who did have it?

 _ **What... did have it?**_

* * *

"I do not understand what you mean, Hades."

The eyes made of black void darkened.

Hades made one more step forward.

"You did not seem surprised to see me, brother. You were expecting me, weren't you? Did you think it was Destiny?"

"What?"

"Destiny doesn't let itself be fooled, my brother, not even when it appears consenting to let itself be duped. Destiny…" A low, short laugh, undeniably resounding of not hidden bitterness. "… is not me."

"I fail to grasp the meaning of what you say, Hades."

"You tried to steal her, Persephone, your daughter, from my sight. You knew that in this way I'd come to know of her existence. And of her beauty. But you failed. And you knew you would have failed. This is why you weren't surprised to see me. Because you knew that Destiny..."

* * *

Destiny?

It was Destiny that had the answer?

But...

But what wanted it from her, Destiny?

 _Those eyes..._

 _That voice..._

What...

 _ **What was her destiny?**_

* * *

Zeus raised imperiously his hand, stopping brusquely his brother's words.

"Persephone won't be meant to you, Hades. It won't be this, her destiny."

The black mantle fluttered threatening.

The puissant body hidden by it, turned out in all its might, its sculptural and powerful structure well evident from below the black short tunic that covered it.

The eyes of dark ember flashed with fury.

The alabaster hands tightened in two diaphanous, strong fists.

Zeus suddenly found himself stepping back.

It was something that never had happened. But the one in front of him, the menacing, powerful figure facing him ... was Hades!

And he... he was about to...

Was it about to happen?

Really?

Was it possible?

His brother, the ghostly Hades - powerful at least as him - was about to...?

But suddenly, just as it had started, Hades' rampage vanished.

The black cape closed on the high and muscular corporeal shape.

The pale face became, if possible, even paler.

And the eyes... those eyes made of shining darkness... went out.

And Hades spoke

And there was no trace of sarcasm in his voice. Nor of anger. Nor of resentment.

There was...

 _There was amazement._

"I did not understand, Zeus, my brother. I did not understand."

A new, strange light appeared in those eyes, as they stared on Zeus who stood dumb to listen.

"I was sitting on my gelid throne down there, in my gelid realm. A day like all my days. The chill, lonely, of all my days."

Zeus felt a weird thing inside.

He knew what Hades' life was.

But now... now Hades was opening up to him.

Hades - the monstrous, gelid, hateful Hades - was telling him the chill of his life.

And… and he was revealing him that, somewhere inside that body of ice, there was something that pulsed.

There was a heart.

A heart that suffered in the chill of his gelid, lonely life.

"No. I did not understand. I did not understand the strange feel, that thing, never felt before, that was stirring inside me."

The strange, dark light of those eyes shone more and more.

"A longing, a yearning. A sort of obscure recall."

The eyes drooped for a moment, as if searching for words.

They got up again. They shone even more obscure.

"I did not understand, brother. But now I do. Now I understand. And..." An odd sweetness appeared in those dark eyes. "…and I can understand why you have acted in this way, Zeus. My brother."

Zeus felt something unknown in his throat. Something he had never felt before. A sort ... a kind of knot. It was... it was difficult to speak, with that lump down his throat.

"You understand?

"She's your daughter, my brother. And she is the brightest of creatures. She's the light in itself. You've condemned me to darkness. Why on earth should you accept that your luminous daughter may be sentenced to the darkness you've treacherously sentenced me to stay in? _To be?_ "

At those words, Zeus' face turned to stone.

"Hades ..."

"Destiny is really evil, my brother. He made me what I am through you, and now it makes fun of you."

The frown of Zeus became such as to distort his noble face.

"You won't have her, brother."

"You want war, Zeus? This is what you want? You want to fight me and Destiny?"

Zeus's chest swelled with anger.

"You will not have Persephone, Hades! Her fate will not be your fate!"

It was a scream. Not screamed. But it was a scream.

And once again Hades surprised Zeus.

Hades was predictable, in some way.

Darkness can only be darkness.

But the darkness of Hades was another thing.

It was a multi-faceted darkness and... _unpredictable_.

His diaphanous hand went up. But it was not threat.

And his eyes blazed again. But it was not anger.

And his voice rose again.

But it was not the voice of Hades. It was not the voice - _the expected voice_ \- of the Lord of the Dark Kingdom.

It was a voice... mild. And yet strong. And yet mellow.

And persuasive.

"Do not oppose, brother. Do not fight Destiny."

* * *

 _ **Was her Destiny that to be…**_

* * *

"Let my dark light be revived by a little true light."

* * *

… _ **HIS!?**_

* * *

Was it a command? Or was it a prayer?

No! Impossible! Hades did not pray!

And yet... and yet, it was not a command.

It was...

 _It was..._

Whatever it was, Zeus found himself saying words he wouldn't ever think he could say.

"Hades, but how will you do? Never will I grant you the hand of Persephone and, even in the case I were willing to give my consent, I have a promise to keep. I promised my wife that I would prevent your darkness from falling on my daughter. And, in addition to this, what about Demeter? Her mother? Never will she agree for our daughter to become yours. And none of the other Gods and Goddesses will ever be willing to help you in this crazy undertaking. You're alone. As you always were. As you…" But what a strange thing! Why he, Zeus, found it so hard to finish his sentence? "… as you always will be."

Those eyes, those eyes that let glimpse a feeble hint of things that only they could see and bear, became...

They became...

Was it possible they could be sad?

And that voice ... that cold and scratching voice...

Could that voice appear almost broken, while still resounding as the same voice of ever?

"Brother, it seems that Destiny has decided I don't have to be alone anymore."

Zeus reacted to those words. And he reacted vehemently.

His finger pointed at Hades' grisly face.

His voice thundered.

"Hades, we do not know what Destiny has decided. We think - we merely think! - that it has decided that you must have Persephone, but from here to thinking that you may no longer be alone... Hades! It is not enough to possess a woman in order to have her for real! To warm your heart with her willing warmth!"

Hades advanced.

His diaphanous and strong hand grabbed Zeus' outstretched finger, while his otherworldly eyes stared at him.

"You are a fine connoisseur of that, aren't you, brother?"

His voice! His damn voice! Again that one! Soft and chilling again! And mocking and biting!

Zeus freed violently his finger from Hades' grasp.

He hissed.

"Hades, I can be what I am... an infidel, a... a skirts-hunter, like you, my _chaste_ brother, think of me."

Eh, even Zeus knew to be biting, and how! And the dark shadow in front of him seemed to become even darker.

"But, Hades, I've always had the heart of my conquests. Always. Because I know how to give love. And that... because I know love."

The dark figure in front of Zeus remained immobile.

It didn't speak.

It didn't move.

It didn't do anything.

Anything.

If not closing its eyes.

Those eyes made of nothingness

Then those eyes reopened.

The nothingness in them was even deeper. It seemed... _it was_... the eternal nothingness. A dark sidereal space made of chilling void.

Even his voice seemed to be made of astral nought.

"I don't. I don't know love."

No. It was impossible. Not even for the puissant Lord of the Gods it was possible not to feel a cold shiver down the spine at hearing that voice.

"But perhaps Persephone..."

Oh Uranus! And now? What was that voice doing? Possible? Could it really be a note of desperate yearning the one that in it resounded?

"... perhaps Persephone can teach me."

"Hades..."

Oh Gaia! How hard it was to talk! But how could it be possible that he, Zeus, had to find it so hard... _and unpleasant_... to resize the absurd hopes of that brother, so odious and hated?

"...Hades, to do that, she should learn to love you. And..."

"And for who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?"

* * *

Persephone turned abruptly.

She ran away from the window, from the light of that moon that seemed to talk to her about obscure things.

She threw herself on the bed.

She pressed her face on the pillow.

 _Enough!_

 _ENOUGH!_

What was happening?

WHAT WAS HAPPENING TO HER?!

She bit the pillowcase.

 _You are light, Persephone! YOU ARE LIGHT!_

 _And he is darkness!_

 _DARKNESS!_

 _And... and you do not even know him!_

 _YOU DO NOT KNOW HIM!_

 _There are not those dark eyes!_

 _And... and so infinitely sad!_

 _It doesn't... it doesn't exist, that voice!_

 _IT DOES NOT EXIST!_

 _That voice so dark._

 _So_ _doleful_ _._

 _So_ _desperate_ _!_

 _There are not those words._

 _THEY DO NOT EXIST!_

"For who ..."

 _ **THEY DO NOT EXIST!**_

"... could ever learn ..."

 _ **THEY DO NOT EXIST!**_

"... to love ..."

 _ **THEY DO NOT EXIST!**_

"... The One ..."

 _ **DO. NOT. EXIST!**_

"... who does not know love?"

* * *

 _ **For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**_

 _ **End**_ _ **of Chapter Five**_

 _ **TBC**_


	6. Chapter Six

**For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**

 **By Asso**

 **Chapter Six**

* * *

Time had passed.

And nothing had happened.

Persephone did not understand.

Yes, it was true. It was true that in her hands the flowers covering up the verdant meadows glistened more vivid.

They shone with her own vivid light.

And it was true that the sky shone more azure than ever when she lifted her blue-green eyes to it.

It was true.

And it was true that the breeze blew milder and sweeter when she opened the white mantle covering her bare shoulders. And that the bluish-green surface of the sea sparkled in the sun as never before when she walked agile and light along the waters shore. And that the gilded crops appeared even more gilded when her hand stroked the wheat ears tenuously tremulous in the caressing waft of the gentle zephyr.

It was true.

It was all true.

But was this the thing, that _new_ thing, never before existed, that she had to bring into the world?

That... that...

The Spring. The bright and sweet Spring of which she was the Goddess.

A... a season. That was its name.

A season, in a world which had no seasons. Which did not even know the true meaning of this term. Exactly like her. And - to tell the truth - just like everyone else, God or demigod that he were. Everyone was talking about it, but what was in fact this mysterious Spring of which she was lady?

What was what she had to really bring in the world?

 _In a world made in her mother's likeness?_

This one, the world, as well as all things ... yes, here, all seemed to acquire more vibrancy - _more life_ \- when she tried to exert some influence on them, and this had manifested itself more and more with the passage of time.

But was it all here?

No. It could not be just that way. The influence she exerted on the world fashioned by her mother was not the influence she felt she had to exercise. As far as it were growing increasingly intense, it was not this, what she felt she had to do. She was certain, she felt it clearly.

There was something missing. And something very important.

But what?

 _What was missing?_

And a strange, bizarre thought started to creep, slow and intriguing, into Persephone's mind.

Her thoughtful gaze rose from the flowered field that her bare feet were treading, light and gentle.

It stared far away.

On the immense and dark forest that bordered the lawn. Over there, to the north.

Obscure. Impressive.

 _Mysterious._

 _Dangerous._

The forest from where well far away she and the Nymphs who were her usual company always kept themselves.

That dense, intricate forest, which seemed to conceal inside frightening secrets.

And… and alluring.

Alluring.

 _Alluring…_

Why had she always felt attracted to that dark forest?

It was gloomy. It was obscure. An immense black stain of ugliness which defined in distance, towards the blue mountains, whose shining peaks were visible from beyond, the lush beauty of that splendidly flowery meadow; which contrasted sombrely with the bubbly beauty of the nearby seashore that bordered the lawn on the opposite side; and with the cheerful beauty of the river gurgling on the third side of the lawn, going to throw festive in the foaming waves of the sea; and with the bucolic and soothing beauty of the large and pastoral dwelling, hers and of her mother Demeter, on which, at the last of its sides, the marvellous flowery field on which she was marching opened up.

Alone.

For the first time alone.

Alone with her thoughts.

Persephone's look became even more pensive.

Beauty. Ugliness.

Light. Darkness.

That forest was ugly. And dark. Opposed to the beauty and the light of what surrounded her.

This her mother had always told her.

And this she had always thought.

Or... or maybe was this what she had always forcibly wanted to persuade herself to think?

And nevertheless it was absolutely true. That forest had nothing nice. Her mother had never laid her blessing hand on its dark tangle.

Too big. Too dense. Too obscure. Nothing beautiful could ever arise from the dense tangle of the twisted branches of the dour trees that formed it.

Ancient trees. Trees existing from before the beginning of the reign of the Olympic Gods.

 _Trees marked with darkness._

That forest was the border, labile and tenuous, between life and death.

It was rumoured...

It was rumoured that the real reason why it was still here, the real reason why her mother Demeter had never laid her hand on it, it was that it was not possible because...

Because it was the road to... to...

 _Shaky and afraid voices whispered that it was concealed in its heart the road for the dark realm._

Was it true? Wasn't?

Better not wonder.

Better simply to leave it afar.

And stay away.

Far, far, far away.

From that ugly forest.

Better to stay in the beauty that resided outside that dense, dark, ugly forest.

 _The beauty that resided outside…_

 _Outside…_

 _Beauty…_

But…

But what was beauty?

Beauty… beauty exists because there is ugliness; as opposed to ugliness. If beauty were not there, how might one say of something that this something is beautiful?

And…

And the good? Couldn't it be said the same of good in opposition to evil?

And of the warmth in opposition to the cold?

Of the quiet in opposition to the storm?

Of… of the light in opposition to darkness?

So then… so then…

 _But what odd, bizarre thoughts!_

 _Strange, strange!_

Could it be... could it be that the Springtime, that of which she was the bearer, could really shine, and be perceived and felt really for what it was, if... if, acting as a counterweight, there had been something that was not there yet? If not there, far beyond the boundaries of the orderly world forged by her mother or, much more nearby, in that obscure forest that seemed to occupy a space of darkness in the middle of the beautiful and bright world of her mother? And...

And down there.

In... in that _other_ world.

The one whose access road it was murmured that lay in that dark, scary forest.

That. Other. World.

 _ **His world!**_

Where there were…

The cold.

The chill.

And the dark.

The storm.

* * *

Time had passed.

And nothing had happened.

Demeter did not understand.

Why had Zeus ordered her to keep Persephone, her beloved and single daughter, under such a close surveillance? Without wanting – never – to explain her anything about the why, despite her questions?

And this since the moment of her birth.

And even more since the time of her consecration as Goddess of Spring.

Two years before.

But time had passed without anything happening.

Two years.

Two full years.

Two quiet and peaceful years of total tranquillity.

How could have it been possible for her, after two years like that, to have the heart of refusing to that so sweet and obedient daughter the delight to enjoy a little bit of quiet solitude?

Of sweet freedom.

Oh she - her beautiful daughter - was all for her! And she would never share her with anyone else!

But what could ever happen?

Everyone - _everyone_ \- loved Persephone!

Everyone.

Everyone vied to enjoy one of her wonderful smiles!

Who - who ever! - could think of hurting her?

Nobody.

NOBODY!

So then?

Why ever had that God, Zeus, - magnificent, but so full of himself - who was her brother and former lover, so obstinately wanted Persephone to be kept under constant surveillance?

Demeter did not understand and, in truth, maybe…

 _Maybe did not even want to understand._

She did not want her heart to tremble for something that might happen to her Persephone.

Something that Zeus feared.

Of course, it was difficult - impossible - to ask no questions herself.

Could it be… could it be Hera?

Hera. Her sister. And sister of Zeus. But also his wife.

His _jealous_ wife. And with good reasons. Zeus was not exactly a champion of marital fidelity.

And nevertheless… nevertheless… in reality, Hera had always showed an unexpected favour - even affection - towards Persephone, and this was much more than merely strange, because Persephone was the result of Zeus' betrayal towards his wife.

One of his many betrayals.

But this time, more serious, much more serious, in Hera's eyes.

And not without valid motivations, in all honesty.

Persephone was daughter of Zeus and of her, of Demeter. Of the King of the Gods and of one of his great sisters. One of the mightiest goddesses.

A member of the same brood Zeus and Hera belonged to.

A member of the restricted circle of the Gods of the Gods.

So…

So actually it could be Hera the reason of Zeus' fear. Something, just to say one, she had told she could do against Persephone and even more so after the consecration. And, logically, Zeus didn't want let her – Demeter – to know what was swirling around in his wife's head.

And nevertheless… nevertheless, to well think about it, this was not true. It was not true because what was true was that everybody loved Persephone. Everybody. Even Hera. It could be seen from her ways of behaving towards her, from her gestures, from the unusual sweetness of her words when she spoke with her. From her... well yes, from her kindness.

No. Not even Hera would ever do anything that could harm Persephone.

And time had passed.

And nothing had happened.

And, into the bargain, in the last few months Zeus hadn't longer let himself be seen, as if he had decided it was time to stop.

Because Hera had resigned herself once again to the fate of being the unlucky wife of the greatest champion of infidelity? A fate that she – she, Hera herself - had forged with her own hands when, wanting to be the Queen of the Gods, she had agreed to be the wife of Zeus? She knew what the price she had to pay was. She knew who she was marrying.

Yeah. She knew.

And she knew there was no remedy. Therefore... therefore, not to mention the obvious, unusual sweetness that Hera showed towards Persephone, it could not be her renewed resignation the reason of Zeus' easing of pressure.

Could it be that the threat Zeus thought was looming on Persephone's head did not exist anymore? For that had Zeus ceased to be so pressing? Not to say that he had almost disappeared from the horizon?

Two years.

Two full years.

And nothing had happened.

And two years during whose course little by little Zeus had oddly loosened his pressure on her about the surveillance Persephone had to be subjected to.

To the point of being no longer there to remind her of that.

So then... so then it could only be that way. Everything collimated. Everything.

Whatever the cloud Zeus had feared that gathered over Persephone's head, this cloud no longer existed.

And so then... so then... why deny to her daughter, on the day of her eighteenth birthday, after two whole years of absolute quiet, or, better said, after eighteen – _eighteen_ \- years of total tranquillity, a little - at least a little - of freedom? Fulfilling her desire to wander alone, finally alone, into the vast flowering field that bordered their dwelling?

A brief moment.

A fleeting instant.

Nothing more.

What could ever happen if nothing had happened during those two years? And during all the previous years?

Nothing could happen.

Nothing.

Nothing was looming up on the horizon that could hurt Persephone

No storm was thickening on her head.

No...

No storm.

* * *

Time had passed.

And nothing had happened.

As Zeus knew it would have been so.

Two years.

Two full years.

Two quiet and peaceful years of total tranquillity.

Two full years without anything happening, since his brother Hades had pulled down around his head, with quick and unexpected move, by seizing it from the wide armrest of his throne where it had remained laid, the helmet - the gift of the Cyclops, the means he had utilized to disarm Cronos and offer this one helpless to Poseidon's trident and his lightning - that gave him total and absolute invisibility, disappearing suddenly from his high siege in Olympus, after pronouncing that sentence.

 _ **For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**_

But his voice had sounded again.

From that empty throne.

Lowest than ever.

Zeus had even wondered if it would not resonate only in his mind.

But not one of the words that that ghostly and disembodied voice had said could be forgotten.

"I will wait for two years. Until the day of Persephone's eighteenth birthday. Until the day of her adulthood, her majority, in the manner of Humans. Then I will act."

The voice had remained silent. Then had resumed, if possible, even lower.

"It will be up to her to decide whether she can be able to teach to love The One who does not know love through her love."

Still a break. And then the voice again. Low, low, low.

"She may want to do it or not. The decision will be hers. But only hers and of no one else. Therefore, exactly between two years I will follow your example." A tiny, sardonic laugh had made itself be heard. " Europe teaches."

Then, after another brief pause…. A very chilling pause. Really.

"At that precise moment I will kidnap her."

Zeus had not even had time to wince.

The voice had stopped him.

"In this way I'll snatch her from any possible influence from her mother or anyone else. I will allow the decision to be hers and hers alone, and, I swear on the Styx, I won't treat her unworthily nor will I force her to make a decision that may be in my favour. Nor, I swear again on the eternal river, will I oppose her decision whatever it may be. And you, my august brother, you may try to stop me or not. You…"

The silence of that further break had been horrifying. Worthy, truly worthy of the Lord of the Underworld.

"... you may want the war or not. This will be _your_ decision. You may want the war or..."

And the voice had become a whisper so low that it almost seemed to not exist.

"... or you may want to give me a chance."

Then the voice had vanished.

And Zeus had known that Hades was gone.

Come back to his Realm.

The Realm without life.

Without light.

Without love.

He was back down there, where he, Zeus, had damned him to be.

Leaving him alone to make his decision.

Oppose. Fight.

Make war.

Or...

Or leave to Persephone the decision.

And give Hades a chance.

And he, Zeus, had made his decision.

His true, real, definitive decision.

The King of the Gods got up from his throne, where he sat lonely, in his great palace.

Hermes had asked him if in the evening, _that_ evening, he should prepare himself to summon everyone for a big party for the eighteenth birthday of Persephone.

He had not answered, leaving Hermes confused and puzzled.

The evening.

The evening of that day.

Which began with that morning.

The morning of the eighteenth birthday of the Spring Goddess. His daughter. His luminous daughter.

Zeus walked slowly toward the two tall columns delimiting the colossal entrance to his palace.

He looked out between them at the turquoise sky.

A beautiful morning.

A wonderful morning.

A sunny morning.

A morning that didn't let foresee any storm.

* * *

 _ **For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**_

 _ **End**_ _ **of Chapter Six**_

 _ **TBC**_


	7. Chapter Seven

**For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**

 **By Asso**

 **Chapter Seven**

* * *

 _Darkness._

 _And storm._

* * *

 **For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**

 **Chapter Seven**

* * *

Step by step...

Little by little...

Did she notice it?

No.

 _Or maybe yes?_

Her light footsteps... absent-minded...

They were taking her...

The obscure forest.

It was approaching.

* * *

Everything was quiet.

Why did she feel this way?

What was that tremor? That trembling inside her?

Demeter shuddered.

She got up, suddenly.

Persephone!

She had to...

She had to reach her!

Demeter ran out like a fury.

"Persephone, stop! Wait for me! I'm coming!"

* * *

Zeus had the gaze long.

He could see what others could not be able to see.

One and only one could compete with him.

And he knew that at that moment this other one was observing what he himself was observing.

Like him, the other one too was watching Persephone, as she slowly was approaching the edge of the forest.

The limit of the world of the living.

Beyond which there was no other power than the power of that other one.

* * *

Hera winced.

Something was wrong.

She could feel it.

She could perceive it.

As a fury she rose, in the blazing light of the advanced morning.

She did not bother to dress.

Among the puzzled and amazed looks of her maids, she rushed reaching her husband.

* * *

"Persephone!"

Demeter was flying.

Literally.

Now she was over the lawn.

She knew her daughter was there.

"Persephone, stop, wherever you are! Wait! Stop!"

* * *

Husband!"

Zeus suddenly turned to that harsh recall.

His wife. Naked and dishevelled.

He swallowed. He tried to set the tone.

"Wife, does this seem to you the way to show yourself? Naked and slovenly like..."

"What are you doing, husband? What are you _**not**_ doing?"

* * *

Helios was watching the world from above.

How nice it was!

Demeter had to be proud of herself!

And now, with her daughter at her side, the world would become even more beautiful.

Suddenly Helios' gaze hardened, becoming attentive.

Persephone! But that was her!

What was she doing at the border of the Dark Forest? Where not even his gaze could penetrate?

One more step and she would have been inside of it!

Beyond the boundaries of the world!

Helios was almost tempted to stop his chariot.

Demeter...

Did she know what her daughter was about to do?

Demeter...

And he saw her.

She was flying.

Over there.

Above the lawn.

But still far from Persephone,

She could not see her daughter yet.

She could not see her while she...

"Oh Uranus! No! Persephone! Do not do it!"

* * *

Hera ran beside her husband.

Her gaze turned to what his eyes had appeared to watch. Her visual power grew sharper in the mighty aura of him.

And she saw what he was just seeing before.

The lawn.

The forest.

And Persephone.

Who was about to enter it.

As a fury she turned to her husband.

"Traitor! Damned Traitor!"

* * *

Helios held his breath.

Demeter would not have made it!

She would not have been able to see where her daughter was, to reach her before...

The reins seemed to become fire in the hands of Helios.

Persephone had entered the forest.

* * *

Zeus could not even try to answer.

Suddenly it was no longer morning.

The light disappeared.

Darkness.

Nothing else.

Darkness.

And storm.

* * *

 ** _End of Chapter Seven_**

 ** _TBC_**

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

 _Darkness._

 _And storm._


	8. Chapter Eight

**For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**

 **By Asso**

 **Chapter Eight**

* * *

 _The Destiny._

 _And the heart._

 _And its unconceivable drives._

* * *

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

* * *

Suddenly Persephone roused herself.

She realized where she was.

But how...

How was it possible?

How could she have done such a stupid thing? Such an insane thing!

She… she had gone in there! In that ... in that forest!

Where... where had her head been? She had drunk her brain!

That was the shadow of the Avernus that stretched out above, over the supernal world!

It was...

And as a mallet the thought all a sudden fell on her.

It was the evil shadow of _his_ kingdom!

 _ **The**_ _ **shadow of him**_ _ **!**_

As a whirling carousel, memories - forbidden, frightening memories - began abruptly to swirl in her mind.

That throne!

 _That empty throne!_

Of marble and stone!

Dark!

Tenebrous!

 _ **His**_ throne!

The throne of the one... of the one... of the one towards whom always - ALWAYS! - her thoughts had gone! Notwithstanding everything! Notwithstanding whichever expressed or unexpressed fear!

Of the one who... who seemed to call her to him as if it were an inevitable will of fate!

No!

NO!

It was not possible!

IT WAS NOT POSSIBLE!

She did not... she did not...

Persephone turned.

Like a fury!

And she snapped.

Like a fury.

A mute cry exploded in her throat.

 _NO!_

A desperate rejection.

Of her fate.

And of her secret, crazy, inconceivable drives.

Which found no room in her voice.

 _NO! No no no!_

And Persephone ran.

Desperately.

Among the crooked and adunc branches of those withered trees that seemed to want to hold her, to stop her furious race.

She ran.

She ran like a gazelle that feels on her the burning breath of the lion.

 _There! There! The light beyond! Beyond the Forest! The vivid morning light on the soft lawn that separated the forest from her home, hers and of her mother!_

 _There it was!_

 _Here was the lawn!_

Her bare feet in mad rush trampled its cool grass.

She was out.

 _She was out!_

 _The forest was behind her!_

 _SHE WAS OUT!_

 _She was furiously running on the meadow!_

 _Free!_

 _FREE!_

 _ **SAFE!**_

Her race stopped abruptly.

In the impenetrable darkness that suddenly darkened every light.

Persephone stood motionless.

Petrified.

Panicked.

A statue with the eyes wide open in the deepest terror.

She felt her hair rise.

They eddied.

Like her dress.

In the impetuous wind that suddenly rose.

That started to lash gelid her body.

To storm her and everything around her.

Her skin, her flesh, her whole body shuddered.

In the chill that suddenly had fallen around her and on her.

In the icy wind raging around her and on her.

Which threw her to the ground, pinning her on her knees.

And then...

Then she heard.

That sinister rumble that grew, more and more powerful, up to also overlie the wind roar.

That rumble behind her.

From... from the forest.

Slowly, scared to see, she turned her head.

She turned her face to the forest, looking sidelong at it from above her shoulder.

And her eyes saw.

Barely open and in tears in the effort to remain open under the lash of the wind, they saw.

As her ears, wound by the swirl of that infernal wind, heard.

The noise of the earth splitting behind her.

Which opened behind her.

 _Her eyes saw._

They saw the horrible wound that was defacing the earth behind her.

The furrow... which was opening up more and more.

The abyss... which was deepening more and more.

The chasm… which from the forest pushed out towards her, reaching out with clangour and with terrific and increasing rapidity towards her.

And the trees, which were sinking inside it, tens and tens of them.

Like the stones. And the clods of earth. And the shrubs, the flowers...

The light, even.

Everything.

Swallowed in nothingness.

And then...

Then him.

Yes!

 **Her eyes saw!**

HIM!

It was him!

She was certain!

SHE KNEW THAT IT WAS HIM!

She did not know him. She had never seen him.

 **But she knew it was him!**

Barely discernible. Like a shadow shrouded in shade. In a dark armour made of shade.

On the big black chariot made of shade.

Which was impetuously emerging from that dark shadow made of tenebrous shade.

Tugged by enormous black steeds, made of shade.

Persephone did not even move.

She could not.

She was not capable of it.

On the knees.

Crushed by the wind.

A thought...

A single, chilling, tremendous thought.

Which everything overpowered.

Her fate...

The fate she had always perceived Destiny had in store for her...

Her fate was coming true!

The fate that deep in her heart she had always known.

IT WAS COMING TRUE!

Nothing else, her mind was able to think.

Nothing else, her soul was able to scream.

Nothing else.

Nothing else, as those mighty hands covered with cold metal grabbed her.

Nothing else, as those mighty arms covered with cold metal pulled her up on the chariot.

Nothing else, as those dead eyes of cold darkness stared at her from behind the black helmet visor, piercing her from side to side.

Only at the end...

 _Only at the end..._

As earth swung shut above her...

As darkness closed around her...

As frost coagulated around her...

As the impetuous wind of the chariot that raced downward... _toward_ _ **his**_ _kingdom_... hit and shook her quivering body...

Only then...

Only then, weak words managed to came out of her trembling lips.

A whisper...

A murmur...

A faint invocation...

Desperate and needless.

And... imperceptibly...

Uncertain.

 _Uncertain._

Like her heart.

"Mother..."

* * *

 _ **End of Chapter Eight**_

 _ **TBC**_

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

 _The Destiny._

 _And the heart._

 _And its unconceivable drives._


	9. Chapter Nine

**For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**

 **By** **Asso**

 **Chapter Nine**

* * *

 _Light goes out._

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

* * *

"Wife! How do you dare? Nobody, not even you, is granted to..."

Hera did not even hear the words of her august groom.

A furious she-cat, hissing and puffing, with bristling hair. Heedless and forgetful of whichever rule, of whichever deserved or undeserved owed respect. Of whichever fear.

This she was, at that moment.

And Zeus retreated.

He withdrew precipitously.

The scratches of that she-cat could really do harm.

Hera snapped forward.

Her hands stretched forward as claws.

"I will tear you one by one every hair of your ridiculous, pompous beard! I ..."

Zeus's hands jumped like rams. They grab his wife's wrists, blocking her crazy gesture.

" **Hera!** "

His voice was a low and deep thunder.

And angry.

And threatening.

But turned to deaf ears.

"Let go my wrists, damn you! Let go them! I must..."

Beyond, one couldn't go.

Nobody could.

Not even Poseidon.

Not even Hades himself, as much as he might be an extremely tough adversary to counter.

And certainly not Hera.

Not even she.

The mighty rumble of Zeus's roar overhung everything.

The Olympus, the Earth, trembled.

The sea shook.

* * *

People, peoples...

Everyone.

They were on their knees.

Terrified.

Mute in dreadful awe.

Even the children were quiet.

Even their weeping was silent.

And the beasts, too.

Big and small. Monstrous and beautiful. Tame and feral.

What was happening?

What was...?

What was that dark?

That dark darker than night?

And... and that wind?

That frost...

Which wrapped all up?

And suddenly the earth trembled.

And the seas shook.

And a rumble, a roar, a... a voice, immense and powerful, angry and furious...

Which all overhung...

As only the voice of the supreme Zeus could do...

The hands clasped one with the other; the bodies clung to each other.

In dread.

What was happening?

WHAT WAS HAPPENING?

* * *

Hera found herself on the floor.

Flattened in a corner.

The mighty Zeus's wife was lying naked on the ground, curled up on herself. As a helpless kitten.

Amazed and disbelieving.

Her beautiful and disbelief eyes rose toward her husband.

"You..."

Nothing more trembling and astonished will be heard anymore.

Nothing.

Nothing, like the shivering voice of the Lady of the Gods at that time.

"...you've..."

Zeus took a deep sigh, his eyes fixed on his wife, lying on the floor, in a corner of the great hall.

Hurled there by him.

Zeus...

Zeus felt shame.

Within him, he knew that his wife was right, that she had all rights to call him... traitor.

But he was Zeus. The Lord of the Gods.

His authority could not be questioned.

Not even by his wife.

And nobody could discuss his decisions.

However...

However it was difficult, really hard, not to feel ashamed - at least a little - at that time.

He had physically raged upon his wife. Had silenced her with the violence.

And this...

This was...

Zeus tried to redress.

As far as possible.

And if possible.

He kneeled before her. He snapped his fingers.

A snow-white and regal peplum appeared and, gently, it rested down on Hera and enveloped her to cover her defenceless nakedness.

The voice of the Lord of the Gods was a soft whisper.

"My wife, forgive me. I've reacted a bit too much impetuously. I... I apologize."

But within himself Zeus knew that it was not entirely for the behaviour he had showed at that juncture that he was apologizing to his wife. That was grave, of course. But graver it was...

The real reasons for his excuses were...

They were the ones that, as she absently wrapped herself in the peplum, the low and sad voice of Hera put in the clear.

"You had promised, husband. You had promised."

Zeus stared at his wife. Then he shook his head. Slowly he rose. He turned, giving his back to Hera.

He felt her eyes fixed on him.

He crossed his hands over his back.

"I've promised, I know. But there are promises that can not be honoured. Or..."

Zeus turned around.

He looked down at his wife with mortally serious eyes.

His voice was a low, heavy murmur.

"... or that can be honoured only partly."

Hera's eyes scrutinized her groom.

"Partly?"

Zeus nodded severely. "Partly, yes."

"Husband ..."

Zeus raised his hand. But it was not an irate or imperious gesture.

It was...

It was a strenuous request.

That Hera understood.

She stood silent.

Waiting for.

Seated on the floor. Wrapped in the peplum. Her eyes fixed on his. She stood silent.

 _Waiting for._

Zeus sighed and shook his mighty head slightly, as if to look for strength and courage.

And for the right words.

"I made a deal with Hades."

"You ..." Hera had difficulty even articulating the words. "... you made..."

Zeus swelled his chest. His hand rose again, to make Hera shut up. And this time it was imperious.

"That night, the night of Persephone's consecration, after everyone had gone and I was left alone, he came to me."

"He..."

"Yes. And I knew he would come."

"You knew it!"

Zeus looked at his wife almost pityingly.

"Hera, my wife. He is Hades."

Hera had no need of any other words, of further explanations.

Of course, the stupid that she had been! Stupid! Stupid! Who had not reflected about that!

That was Hades. Nothing to do with the second Big of the three Big Ones. Nothing to do with the Lord of the Seas, with Poseidon, who was happy to stay put to bask in his water kingdom, forgetful about any other thing which were not pretty and decidedly small skirts or jugs overflowing with wine. He was Hades. Whose gaze competed with that of her groom. And maybe was even more acute. If only he had been interested in using it in order to see everything it was to be seen.

And, evidently, he had been interested, this time!

Hera gave a deep sigh

She spoke in a low voice and laboriously.

"What deal has Hades proposed to you, husband?"

Zeus sighed in turn.

"He did not propose any explicit agreement to me, he simply told me in clear letters that he had perfectly understood that I had tried to subtract Persephone from his knowledge and that the reason was clear to him. And he told me he was not disposed to give up her, to renounce the chance destiny had set for him. And that the price I would have to pay to prevent him from having her would be… war."

"War!"

"Yes, war, Hera. Between me and him."

"And... and you..."

"A war between _us_ and him, wife. Between us and his undoubted power as well as all the monstrous beings and fierce deities he has at his command. A war more perilous than the war against the Titans. And..." Zeus sighed again. It was not easy to say. "...and with an extremely uncertain outcome."

Hera's eyes flashed.

"And you yielded!"

Zeus stood up suddenly in all his imposing stature.

"Zeus does not yield, wife! Never!"

Hera's voice resounded soft. Her gaze seemed to apologize. It was apologizing for real!

"Forgive me, my husband and Lord, please! But... so... how... what...?"

"What has he proposed to me, Hera?"

"Yes"

"Nothing, in fact."

"Uh? But... but..."

"He told me that, on the day Persephone would have her eighteenth birthday, he would..."

Zeus paused shortly, to gather his courage. You can also be the Lord of the Gods, but saying things like that requires a courage that even for the mighty Zeus it was hard to find.

"…he would kidnap her."

"Eh?"

"Subtracting so her from her mother's influence and sweltering protection."

"What?"

"Hera, Hades is not a stupid one. He knows very well who Demeter is. He is aware of her stifling character. So then ..."

"Oh, sure, he knows it! Certainly, not like you do, but anyway..."

Zeus did not want to pick up his wife's sarcastic banter. That was not the time. However, certainly, she had hit the mark. Demeter... it had been really nice to make love to her, but she... she would have liked him to harbour for her something more than a mere sexual desire. And she had become insistent. And stifling. As only she knew how to be. Yet she had known very well, when she had surrendered to him, who he was! And how he was! But, nevertheless...

Oh yes. Demeter really knew how to be exasperatingly asphyxiating and suffocating.

With everyone. Including their daughter.

And, indeed, with her more than with anyone else.

And Hades was not a stupid one.

No. He was not at all.

Zeus went on undeterred, as if his wife had not even spoken.

"Hades, Hera, in telling me that he would kidnap Persephone, had it well clear in his mind that only in this way he could circumvent Demeter and make so that Persephone could be free to choose. And... and, honestly, I couldn't blame him about it. "

Hera's eyes widened.

"Free... to choose?

Zeus nodded severely.

"Yes, wife. Exactly so. Free to choose. Her own destiny. "

"Her own destiny!"

Zeus nodded again.

"Yes. He said it to me clearly. That he would not force Persephone to do anything she did not want to. That the choice of staying with him or not would be entirely hers. And that he would not oppose this choice. No matter which it was."

"He... he did tell you this?"

"Yes, wife. And he made me understand that it was up to me to choose whether to oppose or not to the abduction, knowing that my opposition would mean war. "

"And... and you..."

"And I chose."

Hera remained silent for a while, while her mind processed the words of her groom.

Then, finally, she managed to talk.

"So, this was the deal."

"Yes, Hera."

"And you believed him."

Zeus's eyes blinked dark.

"Hades never lies, Hera!"

Hera opened her eyes wide, hit at the core.

It was... it was true. Hades never lied.

There is no room for lies in the kingdom of the dead.

But fear and anxiety dug inexorably into Hera's heart.

And... and if, for once... for once... Hades had been lying?

With difficulty, the words came to her lips.

"Zeus, my husband and lord... but... but if Persephone's beauty and purity were such as to induce Hades not to keep his word in case she wouldn't want to be his?"

Zeus looked seriously at his wife.

He sighed.

He spoke.

In a low voice.

"It will not happen"

"But…"

"It will not happen, I tell you!"

"O... okay, my Lord! I do not doubt your word! "

"Zeus nodded solemnly. "Very well."

"But ..." Hera's voice was a sad whisper. "... but if she will agree to be his, her light - her new light - will be obfuscated in his darkness. And... and that was not what we, you and I, my husband, wanted. "

It was Zeus, this time, to be hit in his deep down.

But for once, he spoke in answer with true wisdom. The wisdom befitting the King of the Gods.

"But if she will want to belong to Hades, it will be because she wants it, Hera. So she will be happy. And this, both you and I, we want it."

Hera stared at her husband.

This time, she could not find anything to niggle over.

He was right.

And what he said afterwards still dug an abyss of new consciousness inside her.

"Hades does not know what love is, Hera. It is something totally foreign to him. As hatred, for that matter. As any real emotion. And he knows it. He is aware of it. And he suffers for this, without knowing how to give answer to this suffering. And he thinks - he hopes - that Persephone may be the answer. "

Zeus paused for a moment, then resumed with a heavy voice.

"I, Hera, strongly doubt that this may be possible. I strongly doubt... that Persephone can love him. "

Zeus slowly and sternly pronounced his subsequent words, stressing strongly each of them.

" _For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?_ "

Hera now literally hung from Zeus's lips.

The immeasurable abyss of Hades' loneliness mighty reverberated in the words of her husband. Hera, for the first time in her life, really and vigorously perceived the desperate and lonely emptiness of the life of their maligned and ostracized brother.

She perceived his desolate and desperate yearning. Unknown to everyone. Very likely even to him himself.

But not to Zeus.

Not to her groom.

Who at that moment was showing that he deserved to be who he was.

"But Hera... why deny him this chance? It will not happen. You, I, we know it. But and if it were even remotely possible that a little bit of joy could be there for him too? If it were even remotely possible for him to learn to understand what love is, should Persephone be willing and capable of teaching him? If it were even remotely possible that, should this happen, besides iron righteousness, there could also be room for clemency, in that heart of icy stone?"

Hera was speechless. This was her Zeus! Her groom! And ... and moments like this could almost make her forget all his lies, all his infidelities!

Her eyes looked at him adoringly.

And he understood. And smiled softly.

And ruefully.

Because, in any case ...

"In any case, my bride ..."

Zeus bent over to his wife again. He looked at her with affection. She handed her a hand.

She took it, with a little hesitation, and let him help her get up.

They were standing now. The one in front of the other.

"... in any case, my bride, now it's late. There can be no more second thoughts. "

Trembling was Hera's voice. "What... what do you mean, my groom?"

"Hera, my wife, do you see this darkness? Do you feel this frost? Do you perceive this stormy wind? "

Hera looked around. She squeezed in her peplum.

Her eyes watched the thick hair of her husband violently get agitated, as well as his wide vestment, under the lash of that blustery wind, so strong, now, so violent, to overwhelm even his voice.

Yes. She felt, perceived, sensed, saw... understood ... all this.

It was…

"It's not me, Hera. It's not my wrath. I'm calm now. It's not my storm. "

Hera's eyes widened.

"Zeus…"

"And it is not the result, the effect, of my fury, this dull and bloodcurdling rumble that now is heard. It's the sound of... "

* * *

And what was this?

This dull rumble? Which increased more and more in tone?

This infernal stridency, which gave the shivers?

The crowds stood motionless.

Never anything like that had been heard before.

It seemed…

Could it be?

Could it be the creepy sound of the...

* * *

"... of the earth that splits, cracking. To receive her. "

"Zeus!"

"To wrest Persephone from the light of Helios."

"ZEUS!"

"To precipitate her in Hades' kingdom."

Zeus sighed heavily. His thick brows got frighteningly scowled.

"In his realm of darkness."

* * *

 _ **End of Chapter Nine**_

 _ **TBC**_

 **oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo**

 _Yes._

 _Light goes out._

 _Darkness wins._

 _It seems._


	10. Chapter Ten

**For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**

 **By Asso**

 **Chapter Ten**

* * *

 _There_ _._

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

* * *

The wind no longer raged.

Suddenly Persephone realized it.

And she realized there was calm now.

Her stomach was no longer twisting, was no longer trying to climb into her throat, in the precipitous descent.

The horses...

Their mad race had stopped.

They were still.

And the iron-clad hands that had held her tight did not encircle her anymore.

She... was free.

Free even... even to open her eyes.

And she did it.

Slowly.

Fearful to see.

But she had to see.

And she saw.

There was light.

Yes.

There was light.

A strange light.

Wan.

Ashen.

 _Stirless._

Everything, there, was…. was…

Was stirless.

She sensed it.

She felt it.

She perceived it.

There, where she was now...

There...

 _Everything was_ _stirless._

Like... - her eyes looked forwards, before the chariot where she stood upright - ... like those black, huge steeds that had towed that chariot, into which she had been lugged, in a mad rush and that now stood quiet and motionless, only shaking from time to time the proud and thick manes, only emitting from time to time some slight and proud snorts.

 _Everything was stirless._

Like... like the air around.

Still and stirless.

Not hot.

Not cold.

And yet... gelid.

Not on the skin.

Gelid... inside.

Devoid of effluvia.

Of smells.

Simply still.

 _Stirless._

Her gaze rose in that light.

Which light was not.

It watched far away.

Through the nothing that surrounded her.

Looked at the horizon.

Which did not exist.

There... there was nothing.

Nothing.

NOTHING!

Everything was... everything was as if hanging in nothingness!

The chariot, the horses... were hanging in nothingness.

Into nothingness the hooves of the steeds sank.

On nothingness the big wheels of the chariot rested.

The chariot… the chariot where she stood…

The steeds…

They were the only real and solid thing.

They and…

And…

Her eyes turned.

Slowly.

 _Slowly._

He was true.

Solid.

Real.

He was there.

On the chariot.

Black and silent and still.

A step away from her.

Towering over her.

In front of her.

* * *

And the storm died down.

The wind no longer roared.

The calm was back.

No creepy rumble was heard anymore. The earth was quiet again. Composed.

And there was the clear sky again.

And the limpid and transparent light of the sweetly sunny forenoon.

Hera looked at her husband.

He nodded.

With graveness, he nodded.

* * *

The beasts ceased to howl.

They returned quiet.

In the quiet that now reigned again.

The children ceased to cry.

And the birds sang again.

Again, their singing was heard in the quiet and lukewarmly air.

The clouds - fluffy and snow-white - chased themselves again in the blue sky, against the sun, which glowed gloriously.

People, peoples raised their heads, looked around.

They looked up at the sky, blue and serene again.

They filled their ears of the soft singing of the birds, of the harmonious hum of the insects.

The ears...

No longer offended by that ear-splitting, chilling rumble.

It was gone.

The eyes looked at each other.

It was over.

Whatever it had been, it was over.

* * *

And with graveness, Zeus spoke.

In a dim voice.

Staring gravely and sombrely at his wife.

"It's over, Hera."

Tremulous was Hera's voice.

"It's…?"

"Yes, wife."

Zeus bowed his chin on his chest, his arms crossed on it, his eyes lowered down.

"She…" His voice went down up to a barely audible murmur. "…Persephone is there."

Zeus' voice lowered further.

"Down there."

Hera almost had to imagine his last words.

"With him."

* * *

 ** _End of Chapter Ten_**

 ** _TBC_**

 **oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo**

 _There._

 _Down there._

 _With him._


	11. Chapter Eleven

**For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**

 **By Asso**

 **Chapter Eleven**

* * *

 _Welcome…_

* * *

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

With effort, with fatigue, shaken, dazed, Demeter stood up.

Slowly.

In confusion.

What had happened?

She looked around.

Everything was quiet.

The light... the limpid morning light was back.

Everything was quiet.

And limpid.

That impenetrable darkness had disappeared, the darkness which had suddenly blinded her getting soaring above the fields.

And there was not that wind anymore.

That infernal storm.

Which had caught her in flight.

Which had precipitated her to the ground.

Which had stunned her ears and her mind. Together with that chilling sound. That dull yet thunderous rumble. As... as if the earth were being splitting in half.

Everything was quiet.

Again.

But quiet certainly was not her heart.

 _Persephone._

Her mind got filled with that name.

Her soul screamed it, suddenly forgetful about anything else.

And her voice shouted it acutely.

"PERSEPHONE!"

It screamed it.

" **PERSEPHONE!** "

By force, with impetuous dash, Demeter rose in the air; she rushed upward, so high as she had ever been; so high that the earth, the fields, the crops, the forests, the waters almost merged with each other; so high that her look could see everything almost as if it were Helios' gaze.

But she did not see her.

Persephone there was not.

And Demeter's cry reverberated in the high vaults of the sky.

" _ **PERSEPHONE, WHERE ARE YOU?**_ "

But the high vaults of the sky nothing responded. Nor did the depths of the sea, nor the forests or the mountains or the rivers or the caves excavating the earth.

Unanswered her cry, her appeal, remained.

Unanswered her desperate panting remained.

Her last hushed, desolate sob.

"Where are you, Persephone?"

* * *

"Welcome in my realm, Persephone."

* * *

 _ **End of Chapter Eleven**_

 _ **TBC**_

 **oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo**

 _Welcome in his realm, Persephone._

 _May it be welcome to you._


	12. Chapter Twelve

**For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**

 **By Asso**

 **Chapter Twelve**

* * *

 _Eyes_

* * *

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Hera pulled herself together. She straightened her shoulders and looked sternly at her husband.

With proud and dignified frown.

But even with a tiny hint of malice, in truth.

"How will you do, husband?"

Zeus scowled in incomprehension. "How will I do to do what, wife?"

Hera's eyes smiled mischievously.

"All the mess that passed over us, Zeus... Let's forget Humans, if you want. They know that they can not be able to do anything else but merely bow their heads under the dark forces that rule the world. Not all of them, to be honest, but almost all. They know that for them it is fruitless to ask questions they can not be answered. But our race brothers... the other gods... along with all the myriad of demigods and almost gods... They too have witnessed the mayhem just occurred and they... well, they will want surely to know. And to whom will they turn to know... "The mischievous gleam in Hera's eyes shone more evidently."... my wise husband and lord?"

Zeus's frown became more than a frown.

Damn!

Being caught out in that way! As a rookie god!

Eh sure. Because his wife had hit the mark. He was Zeus. The lord of everything and everyone. How... how could it ever be possible that, if the chaos that had just occurred, had not been caused by him himself, he could not know what it was due to? Impossible! He had to know! He was Zeus!

But ... for Cronus' bowels! ... how could he ever do to reveal the cause of what happened? That the cause was Hades? That his dark brother had stolen Persephone - his beloved daughter! - from her world? From her mother, without this one knowing anything? To make her his own? Or, at leas, to try to do so? Or how could he, Zeus, ever say that he didn't know a fucking anything? Oh, but what a splendid impression on the part of the Lord of Gods! Or, worse yet, how could he do to say that he knew exactly what had happened and... and that he was consenting? Or, if not exactly consenting, unable to oppose? Or, even worse, at least willing to not oppose? Damn! Damn! DAMN! And now? How would he do to get out of all that?

Sure. He could still say that he was Zeus and that this was quite sufficient. His willingness towered over everyone and everything.

But... well, yes... well ... not that his prestige would have gained a lot in this way. And, as far as he couldn't care less ... well ... it was not something he liked very much.

And, icing on the cake, his wife! She knew everything! He himself, the fool he had been, had revealed everything to her!

And she... oh, damn, what better way to take revenge on all his betrayals - including and above all, the one perpetrated with Demeter - than that to put him up to ridicule, revealing or even merely by letting be understood that, at the base of everything, there was him? That he had consented Persephone being swallowed into the darkness of Hades? Eh sure, because surely the disappearance of Persephone would not have gone unnoticed and ... and if, the moment he would be asked for some explanation about, his wife had started to... sing? At the top of her lungs or in soft tones, this didn't matter a bugger all!

This, in fact, was the biggest dilemma. The problem to which he had to find immediate solution.

And, of course, a simple order would not have been enough.

His wife was smart.

She knew how to do things without being caught out!

Damn! Double damn! Triple damn!

Zeus' eyes looked at his wife almost viciously.

For Titans' tripe! Of course, it was not easy for her to live with him, he had to admit it, though she knew well what she was going to face the day she had agreed to marry him. All in all, she was simply paying for her own ambition!

But... damn, how much she was capable of making him pay dearly the price of his betrayals!

And at that moment - strangely, bizarrely - a weird thought flashed in Zeus' mind.

 _But maybe... maybe that was why he had wanted her. What other goddess could have ever stood up to him? And... but yes... let's say it... what other goddess could he have ever loved?_ _In... in the true sense of the term?_

And that thought... that weird thought... brought with it the solution of his dilemma.

Because sometimes it happens just like that. The solution you do not expect comes in tow of something you do not expect.

Like that bizarre thought.

Zeus smiled mischievously.

"How much I love you, my wife!"

Hera was totally taken in surprise.

"What?"

"But sure, you're well aware of that!"

"I am…?"

"Betrayals, lies, subterfuge... yes, yes, all true, all true, I admit it and, after all, Hera, all this makes me... let's face it, makes me even bigger and more powerful, in the eyes of the world. My countless conquests. Because even in this the king of the gods must prove to be superior to everyone. "

"Zeus!"

"But, my wife, think about it." And Zeus's smile became sly and sweet at the same time. "I, _always_ , come back to you."

Hera struggled to articulate the words.

"Yes ... but ... you ... I ..."

"And you know the why, my beloved wife."

Her eyes wide open, Hera was barely able to stutter "I kn… know?"

"Of course, you know it, because you know perfectly well that I am in love with you!"

Hera looked at Zeus as one could look at a pink elephant.

"Hu... husband..."

"Exactly! Husband! _Your_ husband!"

Impetuously, Zeus grabbed Hera's hands and squeezed them, firmly but gently.

"Hera, my wife, my heart is yours, and you know it."

Zeus's voice was sweet and persuasive. Then it became serious, while his eyes fixed those of his wife intensely.

"This is why I revealed everything to you regarding the pact between me and Hades."

Zeus's gaze grew deadly grave. Solemn.

"Because I know that I can trust you just as a husband can trust the wife he loves."

Zeus brought closer his face to Hera's. His lips caressed hers.

On her lips, he whispered.

"I know well that never you will betray this secret."

And Hera fell into Zeus' trap.

Consenting and aware, she fell headlong into it.

Because, in reality, he did not lie.

In his way… he loved her.

And because...

Hera tasted the flavour of her husband's lips on hers. Savoured their fullness. And their strength.

 _Because... because..._

Because his charm bewitched her!

It had always been like that!

And even now it was like that!

Oh, it was incredible, it was monstrous, thinking about it, but she could, she was able to understand all the females who had fallen prey to that charm! How could it be possible to resist?

And how could she, now, resist his unspoken request? The request he, softly and bewitchingly, had murmured without words on her lips?

She... would not say anything. To no one.

The pact that her husband had made with Hades would remain a secret to everyone.

And... and when the others would come to seek for explanation about the ruckus that was unleashed and, obviously, about Persephone's disappearance too, Demeter as first, she would not reveal anything.

Zeus, her husband, could count on her silence.

Because that was what he wanted.

Being able to count on her silence.

And...

Hera turned her face away from her husband's, softly released her hands from his and stepped back so as to be able to watch him well in the face.

 _And so it would have been._

Hera nodded, almost resignedly.

And whispered.

"I will not say anything, husband." She smiled, a little sadly. "You can trust me."

Zeus smiled at that murmured words.

A smile of victory.

But, after all ... yes!... at the end, even a smile of love.

And, at that moment, another bizarre thought crossed his mind in a flash.

He... well, he had love. His wife's love. Deserved or undeserved that this was. He knew love.

Hades... no. He did not know love.

And he wanted to try to get to know it.

He would never succeed, because...

 _For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?_

But why not consent to his crazy attempt?

He had chosen well. Yes, he had chosen well.

Being the king of the gods also meant being magnanimous.

And he had shown himself magnanimous towards Hades.

And, two birds with one stone, he had in this way also avoided a fratricidal and ruinous war.

Extremely dangerous.

And, to crown it all - knowing Hades' iron conduct and stone uprightness, such that his dark brother never would recant what promised - in his heart he knew that in the end Persephone would return, and untouched, furthermore. Because...

 _For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?_

Destiny this time would have to eat its verdict.

Because...

 _For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?_

* * *

In the middle of nowhere, wrapped in nothingness, standing in nothingness, Persephone raised her head.

She looked at the black helmet behind which the face lurked of the one whose voice, grave and low, had spoken.

She looked past the slits behind which his eyes hid.

Her bright, crystalline green eyes looked at those other eyes.

Those two deep wells made of nothing.

 _Those two forlorn eyes._

Persephone looked at those two otherworldly... _fascinating_... eyes.

* * *

 ** _End of Chapter Twelve_**

 ** _TBC_**

 **oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo**

 _Eyes._

 _ **Souls.**_


	13. Chapter Thirteen

**For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**

 **By Asso**

 **Chapter Thirteen**

* * *

 ** _For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?_**

* * *

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Hera turned around. She turned her back to Zeus. Her gaze lingered thoughtfully over the infinity of her groom's domains.

Over the sky. Over the sea waves, down there. Over the vast fields of the earth, there, far away. Over the mountain peaks all around; high, but not as high as the Olympus that everything overhung; lost against the blue of the sky.

Serious and low her voice sounded.

"But the problem, for you, my husband, remains."

She turned around. She looked intently at Zeus.

"Nothing, I'll say. I'll be your trustworthy and loyal bride. But you, my husband... you... what will you say, when you'll be required?"

Zeus returned the gaze of his bride.

His eyes were grave, but, in some way, tranquil.

Hera understood. The awareness of her silence had infused strength and self-confidence in her husband.

And the almost cheerful tone of his voice confirmed it to her.

"Only three gods can upset the world in the way it has been upset, my wife."

The tone of Zeus's voice became declaredly cheerful.

"Poseidon, Hades..." And he laughed openly. "... and me."

Hera raised an eyebrow. Somehow, she did not like the turn that her husband's' speaking was taking.

Zeus chuckled slyly.

"Hades is down there, round where he dwells, busy... in his business. And… well…" He snickered impishly. "…I highly doubt he will want to take part in the explanations. But, on the other hand, who could ever imagine that the tenebrous Hades, who never leaves his realm of death, may have been the cause of everything? Hades... it's Hades. He is there and there he stays, not giving a damn about the things of the world. Of anything, it were even the veritable end of the world. Poseidon... well, he will want to know. Much as he can be _embedded_ in his liquid realm, surely he will want to know. He likes to be part of the high council of the gods and be participant of the events of the upper world. Not to mention that, according with the rather high opinion he has of himself, a god of his rank, as he would say, can't be in ignorance of what happens under the sky. And he knows not being him to have provoked all that uproar. And, just as well as the others, never he might suspect it's Hades. So... "And Zeus chuckled again. "... so, who remains, it is me."

Hera's eyebrow rose a little more.

"That is to say, my august husband?"

Zeus laughed loudly.

"Hera, my wife, could anyone ever ignore that the roaring voice that could be heard in the midst of all that tumult was mine?"

Hera's gaze became icy. And icy resounded her voice. She was beginning to understand and she was not at all happy with what, just glimpsed before, now she was beginning to grasp in the whole.

"In a nutshell, you will say that it was you who unleashed all that ruckus."

"That's right, my wife."

"But..." And her voice was an icy whisper. "...why ever?"

Zeus' roaring laugh sounded again.

"I could simply answer that it is my business, but I will say… _never interfere between husband and wife!_ "

Hera crossed her arms on her chest.

"Ah, I see. In short, you would have unleashed all this ruckus because angry with me."

"Well..."

"A great honour, being able to push the king of the gods to such excesses."

"Oh but... my wife... you are capable of this and much more!"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Oh... ah... I mean ..."

"What do you mean, my revered husband and lord?"

Zeus took a deep breath. He stood silent for a long moment, looking at his wife halfway between being apprehensive and annoyed.

Finally, he made up his mind to speak.

And, once again, he managed to find the right words.

All in all, his high title had indeed reason for being.

"Wife, only the wife of the king of the gods can lead him to such excesses. No one else would be capable of it."

"Ah, so it would be my fault?"

"I would rather say merit, my wife. Merit full of pride. Only the woman loved by the king of the gods can be able to bring the king of the gods to shake the world."

Hera understood that the fluid and enveloping web of Zeus was enwrapping her again, but she did not know what to do about that. That soft and warm cocoon was delightfully pleasant!

"I should feel proud, Zeus?"

"Yes, my wife. Proud and honoured."

"Proud and honoured!"

"Certainly. You are the shining emblem of what women are! Whether mortal or immortal!"

"I am...?"

"Yes. It's women who move the world, it is for them that men - gods or humans, it does not matter - live and act. For better or for worse!"

And so, it was done again.

Hera realized this.

Zeus had won.

Once again, he had won.

As it had been with Cronos.

As, after all and albeit with a sneaky deception, it had been with Hades, although this one, even though perfectly aware, - of that, Hera was certain and now, after what her husband had told her about it, even more than she had been before - had not raised an eyebrow regarding Zeus' fraudulent victory.

As it was, now, with her.

His web of dark lies would once again conceal the truth.

However...

Hera turned again and let her gaze still wander over the vast sky beyond the columns of the Olympic palace.

 _However..._

Her voice sounded soft in the air.

"For better or for worse, husband?"

She turned around. Her large eyes stared intently at her husband.

"As Hades with Persephone?"

* * *

Persephone strayed her eyes away from those hypnotic eyes.

She had never seen them before.

And yet... she had seen them.

That night.

The night of her incomprehensible restlessness, after the apotheosis of her consecration.

She remembered seeing them.

In her mind.

As if they were calling her.

From the recondite depths of herself

Those eyes.

Those empty eyes...

And doleful...

 _And mesmerizing..._

Those eyes that were staring at her now.

* * *

All of a sudden serious and grave again, Zeus returned his wife's gaze.

"As Hades with Persephone, my wife."

Hera nodded. Turned again towards the sky. Murmured softly.

"I see."

She stood silent for some instants.

Then her soft voice let itself be heard again. From behind her shoulders.

"But she, my husband and lord... she ... Persephone... where is she?"

* * *

Persephone turned slowly.

Low eyes. Head bowed. Faint voice.

"Your realm, my lord?"

She turned back again.

She raised her face with feeble strength.

She looked - she dared to look - at those eyes of a timeless nothingness.

She dared to ask.

"What is your realm, my lord?"

And she dared again.

"Who are you, my lord?"

And again.

"Why..."

Her voice trembled perceptibly.

"... why did you bring me here?"

* * *

Zeus snorted hard.

He was loosing his patience.

Because his wife was bringing to light, one by one, all the nodes that the comb of his shrewdness had necessarily to smooth. Without knowing how to do.

And this... this was intolerable, behold!

He played the role of the one who doesn't understand.

"What do you mean... _where's Persephone?_ You know very well where she is, wife!"

Hera did not let herself be intimidated. She knew very well that, when her husband behaved that way, he was looking for some useful suggestions. In his own way, of course. Because he was what he was. But he was doing it. And, after all, she was his wife. It was her duty to be by his side. And also... and also her pleasure!

 _Pleasure! PLEASURE!_ _ **PLEASURE!**_ _For the bowels of Cronos!_

Because… damn! It was true! Zeus, her husband, loved her and she... she... damn it!... she loved him!

Beyond all her ambitions, which - she did not deny it to herself - had played not a small role in her giving herself to him as a woman and as a wife… she loved him!

Sometimes it came her to wonder if that cold fish of Athena was after all right in in letting it be understood, without much compliment, as it was her use, that, in her opinion, she, Hera, was... was a goose!

She spoke softly without turning around.

"Yes, I know it. And..." She turned back to her husband and looked at him purposefully. "...and I will not say anything, but ..."

"But?"

Zeus's voice was impatient.

As well as that of Hera resounded quiet.

"But the fact remains that she has disappeared. Perhaps not everyone, not right away, will notice it, but her mother... "Hera's voice hardened a little."...the one in whose womb you have injected the seed of Persephone ..." Then her voice softened again. "... she can not fail to notice it."

Zeus stood looking at his wife with a frown that actually denoted all his uncertainty.

And his wife gave no respite to him.

"And she will want to know."

Zeus' expression darkened even more.

He spoke.

A low roar.

Of impotence.

Of unexpressed request.

"Yes, she will want to know."

"And you, my lord ..."

"I..."

Still a roar. _Almost_ a roar. Or, perhaps, a roaring request for help?

Hera smiled.

A big, sweet, knowing smile.

"You, my lord… you will foam at the mouth by rage."

"I... I will foam at the mouth by rage?"

"Sure! Who dared? Because it will be evident to everyone, and first of all to her mother, that the hooked fingers of an unknown and cursed kidnapper has been the cause of Persephone's disappearance. But who dared to commit such a crime? Who! Who dared to steal Persephone from her mother? From you, my lord? From you, the King of the Gods?"

"Yeah. Who... who dared?"

"Woe to him, woe to anyone who dared to do it!"

"Yeah... sure. Woe to him!"

"Your fatal wrath will fall on him!"

"Sure, sure! My wrathful anger will fall on him!"

"You will unleash to the four winds Hermes, your lightning-quick and crafty herald and observer, capable of arriving anywhere in a flash, to find out who may have been."

"Oh... oh yes, of course I will do that."

"And he will search everywhere. Everywhere! But nothing he will find out."

"Eh... oh yes, nothing he will find out."

"At least under the light of the sun."

"Eh yes... because Persephone is no... is no longer under the light of the sun."

"Yes. She is... elsewhere."

"Yeah. Elsewhere."

"But, on the other hand, how might Hermes ever think of looking for her there? How could he think of looking for Persephone where she is? In the realm of death and nothingness? How could her vivid light ever be entrapped in the dark light of the Lord of Nothingness?"

"Mh... yeah... sure, impossible, really."

"Hermes' search will be fruitless, unfortunately."

"S… sure. Un… unfortunately."

"And at that moment, when it will have to be acknowledged that every search will have been in vain, you will curse the one who has dared to perpetrate such a misdeed."

"O... o... of course, I'll do that!"

"Your terrible curse will fall on him. A curse that will make him, even if unknown, the most miserable and wretched of beings."

"Certainly!"

"Well knowing, in your immense wisdom, that no curse, not even yours, could ever scratch one of the other two Great Ones. Neither Poseidon, nor... Hades."

"E... exactly."

"So, this way, you will do, my husband and lord, won't you?"

"Yeah... sure. It is exactly what I was thinking of doing."

"I did not doubt it, my lord."

"Ah, here."

"Poor Demeter..." And here Hera's voice turned being coloured by a tenuous yet undoubted smugness. "...will have to resign herself. No one will ever be able to reveal to her where her beloved daughter ended up."

"Yeah." Zeus' voice rang a little unconfident. "Yeah. Sure. No one."

* * *

Helios was driving his chariot high up in the sky.

His chariot.

The bright chariot that brightened everything.

Again.

After the obscure darkness that for long, endless moments, had enveloped everything.

He was driving his chariot back along the bright paths of the sky.

And he was thinking.

 _He was thinking._

About the darkness that had everything wrapped up.

About the dark storm that for long moments had held back his celestial run.

He was thinking.

About what he had seen.

And about what he had not seen.

He had seen Persephone, uselessly sought from above by her mother, by Demeter, rashly approach the grim forest that was the prelude to the realm of the dead.

To the kingdom of... of...

He had seen her go into it.

He had seen her penetrate - incomprehensibly - into the thick and obscure tangle of its immense twisted trees.

And then… he had seen her run desperately out of it.

And he had seen the earth open up behind her.

Even in the middle of the leaden darkness that had fallen everywhere and in the din, in the ruckus that had poured over the world, he had seen.

He had seen the immense and obscure cleft that had chased after her from the forest, as if to swallow her.

He had seen her disappear into the abyss that had opened beneath her.

He had seen all this.

But he had not seen anything else.

He had not seen how she had been drawn into the abyss.

He had not seen who or what had grasped her.

Because... yes... because she had been grabbed.

Mighty arms, though invisible, had grabbed her.

A mighty vehicle, though invisible, had transported her... down.

Under the earth that had closed impenetrably above her.

But he, Helios, hadn't been able to see of whom those arms were, what the means was on which Persephone had been dragged... underneath.

However, although his eyes had not seen, his mind had done it.

 _His mind had seen._

He knew of whom those arms were, the arms his eyes had not seen but his mind had.

He knew what the... kidnapping means was.

 _He knew…_

He knew who was able to conceal himself from anyone's sight. God or man or beast.

He knew who possessed such a power.

He knew… who had snatched Persephone from the light of his bright heavenly chariot.

Who was he who, from his obscure forest, threshold of nothingness, had cast his dark shadow to swallow the vivid light of the daughter of Demeter and Zeus.

He knew.

But...

But he would not reveal anything.

He would remain silent.

It was not... it was not wise to meddle in the business of...

Of Hades!

* * *

The voice, sombre and dark, rose again.

In the disquieting surrounding nothingness, it resounded into Persephone's ears.

Low and deep.

Gloomy.

And yet courteous, too.

 _Gentle_ _._

"You know where you are, Persephone. You know what my realm is. You..." The ghostly eyes behind the helmet lit up with a dark glare. "...you know who I am."

It was like this.

Persephone knew very well where she was, who the lord of that kingdom made of nothing was.

She knew who was concealing himself behind that helmet.

And she said it.

With a firm and sure voice.

With pride.

With courage.

"You are Hades."

Her voice grew louder.

"And this..."

Her arm rose to indicate with a wide gesture the nothing around.

"... this..."

And even stronger her voice sounded.

"This is your realm."

The deep voice, low and manly, made itself be heard again.

The answer. The answer in response to her words.

An answer that Persephone would not have expected.

And proffered with a soft and gentle tone. With inside – evident - a clear note of appreciation and admiration.

"I knew that proudness and courage couldn't but be one with your peerless beauty, Persephone."

Persephone looked up to watch with a surprised and befuddled gaze those other eyes, which now seemed to smile an amused and subtly mischievous smile from behind the slits of the sallet of the black helmet.

Those eyes, that look, which, though kindly, seemed to want to make fun of her, triggered something inside her.

 _Something..._

A pride...

An audacity...

Greater than those unconsciously shown before.

Which she did not know she possessed.

She spoke.

With even higher voice than before.

With strength.

With self-assurance.

With...

 _With authority._

Conscious of doing it.

"I know who you are, but I do not know _how_ you are. Take off that helmet, so that I can see not only the eyes but the whole face of my captor."

And, at that point, a strange thing happened.

Those spectral eyes, his eyes, the eyes of Hades, widened out in pure wonder.

The same that rang clear in his voice.

"You... can see me?"

Persephone stared at those eyes wide open in surprise.

"Of course I can see you. Why shouldn't I ...?"

"You can see me? _Not just hear me?_ "

"But... of course! I see you! Perfectly! I do not understand why I shouldn't... "

"And can you see where you are? I mean, can you see the chariot where you and I are?"

"But... but of course I can!" Now Persephone was more than ever surprised. "I see it distinctly!"

"And the horses, too?"

"The horses?"

"The horses, yes. The steeds that are attached to the chariot."

Almost by its own will, Persephone's confused gaze turned to look at the black, mighty steeds that were still, suspended in the void, attached to the chariot they had dragged down deep in a mad race.

Then her bewildered and uncertain eyes moved swiftly back to Hades, whose eyes now looked as being waiting for her response in anxious expectation.

"Of course I see them." Persephone's voice was pervaded by her disorientation and puzzlement. "Why should I not see them?"

There was silence.

Long moments of silence.

While Persephone looked intently and even anxiously at those eyes - those dark wells behind the helmet.

While those eyes narrowed, staring at her with acute intensity.

Then, finally, the black figure moved.

Without any sound being emitted from it, it slowly lifted its iron-clad arms.

He brought them to his helmet.

The iron black-gloved hands gripped the helmet.

They lifted him up.

Up.

Hades' face appeared.

To Persephone's full sight, it appeared.

* * *

Demeter was flying.

Under the vault of the sky, she was flying.

And was looking.

And was searching.

And nothing, she was able to find.

 _Persephone! Persephone, my daughter! My sweet, beloved daughter! Where are you?_

And a sudden - horrible - thought overshadowed every other thought in Demeter's mind.

Kidnapped! Yes! Kidnapped! Persephone had been kidnapped! Something... someone had kidnapped her!

 _Persephone... who... who took you away from me?_

Someone...

Who... who...?

Of whom was the face that at that moment was watching her Persephone?

Of whom?

Which was... _how_ was that face?

* * *

Raven hair.

Short.

Above an alabaster face.

Persephone looked at that face.

She scrutinized it.

Its severe mouth.

Its pale lips, fine yet full.

Its high cheekbones.

Its nose, straight and mighty.

Its strong-willed chin.

She watched the thousand wrinkles that furrowed its high forehead.

Deep wrinkles.

As time.

She looked at that marble face.

Raw-boned.

With no beard, nor moustache.

Not young.

Not old.

Timeless.

 _And handsome._

Like those eyes - dark deep wells - that seemed to conceal arcane knowledges.

Obscure beauties.

Those eyes.

Which were staring at her.

* * *

 _Don't you dare to turn your face on her, monster! Whoever you are!_

 _Don't you dare to turn your unclean eyes on her!_

* * *

"This is my face, Persephone. Hades' face."

Persephone roused suddenly from her ecstatic observation at the sound of that voice.

His voice.

Strong. Deep. Harsh, too.

Yet, somehow, also soft.

 _Courteous, once again._

"And this..."

The arms wrapped in black iron moved. The hands lowered. They tendered forwards the black helmet towards Persephone, to show it to her blatantly.

".. this is the helmet the Cyclops gave me. The kunée. The means by which I managed to enter unseen in the Titans' encampment and destroy all their weapons, thus allowing Zeus and Poseidon to defeat Cronos. Because, see Persephone, it grants to him who wear it the gift of invisibility, both for the one wearing it and for what the one wearing it is using. Like my chariot. And the steeds that pull it."

Persephone widened her eyes in the sudden, arduous comprehension.

"But..." Hers was an acute exclamation of wonder. "...but I have seen you! _I see you!_ As I see the chariot! And the horses!"

The alabaster face did not move a muscle.

Only the unearthly eyes showed something.

Something that was no longer wonder or surprise.

It was a thought. An inner question.

A thought, a question ... serious. Important.

Full of significance.

Persephone could guess it. Or maybe, more veridically, she ... could feel it.

Persephone realized it.

With wonder and... and with apprehension, she realized that she could feel that thought. That question

Perhaps because it was her own thought, her own question.

Or perhaps because... _oh Uranus! Oh Gaea!..._ perhaps because she... she and that horrible and frightful god, that god, vituperated and hated, that god who had kidnapped her, who had stolen her from... from life!... because she and he... because her destiny...

All the fears, the obscure premonitions, the incomprehensible omens that had accompanied her since that evening, since the evening after her apotheosis...

Everything. Even the strange absurd thoughts that had crowded in her mind as her insane feet led her to the forest...

Everything reappeared suddenly in her brain.

In a confused and overwhelming whirlwind.

That his voice interrupted abruptly.

And she didn't stay surprised when the black shadow in front of her gave voice to that thought.

His and ... and hers!

She didn't stay surprised at his question.

"Persephone ..." Hades retracted the helmet and hung it on a spike of the chariot. His unearthly eyes stared at Persephone, who was breathing hard, holding her breath in waiting for the question she felt - she knew - that he would pose. "... why have you approached that forest, the forest that is the threshold of my dominion? Why have you come into it? Why have you exposed yourself my power?"

Persephone swallowed hard.

Without speaking, she stood staring wide-eyed at those other hypnotic eyes, unable to respond, to give voice to what she could not - _she did not want to!_ \- admit.

A deep sigh. Just so. Hades, the god of death, the king of the underworld, sighed visibly.

Then he turned around, turned his back to her.

She now saw his broad shoulders, clad in the black armour pauldrons.

And his nape. Covered by his short raven hair.

But it seemed to her she could see that face of him, that alabaster face, painful and gaunt, so different from the perfect faces of the other gods.

So darkly, sinisterly, attractive!

She could imagine - she could see - those lips, pale... and full, that severe and expressive mouth, as it spoke.

Gravely.

In a low voice.

"When I saw that you were approaching the forest, that you penetrated inside it, almost inviting me to act, I thought that Zeus was honouring our pact."

Persephone's head snapped up. She couldn't restrain herself, though anxious - fearful - of what Hades would say.

"What? Your pact? "Choked was her voice."Between you and... and my father?"

Hades turned, looked at her. A shadow... yes, a shadow of anxiety on his marble face.

A shadow of anxiety in his voice, though firm.

"I was not informed by my brother of either your birth or the ceremony of your consecration. It was a coincidence - or maybe... maybe it was the will of fate - that I, after time immemorial, turned my eyes to the world - to your world, Persephone, to the world of life and light and heat - and that so I could see you. You. In the splendour of your... "Hades' voice became a sort of low sigh."... of your beauty." The voice of the god of nothingness lowered even more. His eyes veiled with a strange shadow. "On that evening where thoughts, never had before, disquieted my spirit."

Hades broke off. He turned again. He spoke to the emptiness that surrounded them.

In a low and soft tone.

He spoke to Persephone.

And to himself.

"Perhaps it was those bizarre thoughts. I do not know. Those thoughts, which never I had had before, which came to unsettle my soul, a soul that never had known any upset. I do not know. Those thoughts, which spoke to me... which spoke to me about something I did not know. That I do not know, Persephone."

Hades turned back again.

He stared at Persephone.

A look she would never have believed he could have.

That she would never have believed it could exist.

"And I dared to think it were possible someone could teach it to me, Persephone."

Hades stood silent again.

Persephone did not dare to breathe.

She was stunned.

Incredulous.

Overwhelmed.

And she hung from his lips.

From his harsh voice. And profound.

 _And wonderfully endearing!_

"When my gaze rested on you, on your incomparable beauty, I dared to think that it could be you to teach it to me."

Once again, Hades was silent. He crossed his arms wrapped in iron on his iron-covered chest.

One more sigh.

Then…

"So, that very evening, I did something I had not done in ages. I, Zeus and Poseidon possess a power that only we have. The throne that is reserved to us in the high assembly of the gods, in Olympus, is ready to receive us, at any moment and from any place we can be in. So, I left my kingdom and reached Olympus. My throne."

And so it was true! It had not been absurd and frightening fantasies, hers, of that night!

She... she had perceived - maybe ... maybe she had even seen for real inside her! - him, Hades, sitting on that throne! She had sensed... his presence!

She had really seen his netherworld eyes!

 _His fascinating netherworld eyes_ _!_

She had perceived all this because ... because...

Oh fate! Oh fate!

 _Why just he? WHY JUST I?!_

The voice of Hades - the _arcanely sweet voice_ of Hades! - burst into her confused and stunned mind.

That voice... that voice...

Why did she have to find that voice... so enchaining?

"I confronted Zeus hard-nosed. He had never excluded me from the social life of the high world, even though, in his heart, he, like all gods and demigods, was happy to know that I preferred to stay away from that world. That time, however, he had done it. Why? The only logical reason was that he feared fate had in store for me something he did not want me to have. And that something... that something, Persephone, I wanted to think it was you."

 _Oh Uranus! Oh mighty progenitor of us all!_

To Persephone it almost seemed she was suffocating.

 _The god of death! THE GOD OF DEATH! Why?_ _ **Why?**_ _ **WHY?**_

"I cornered Zeus, Persephone. He should not have opposed what I was thinking of doing, on penalty of a fratricidal war between him and me. And he, like me, knew that the winner would not be guaranteed. I did not have precise answers from him, but I know Zeus since ever. I know him well. And I knew well what his unspoken answer was. I left, well knowing that he would not oppose what I would do. A tacit pact had been sealed between him and me."

A breath of a voice, a faint breath of a voice, the voice of Persephone.

"And what you intended to do it was to kidnap me."

The alabaster face bowed.

A confirmation gesture.

The uncanny wells of those empty eyes seemed to want to elude Persephone's gaze.

The voice of the lord of the underworld sounded anything but strong and sure.

"And what else could have I done, Persephone? I ... I do not know any other means. I... I don't know how… how to woo. And then... when ever the celestial creature that you're could have accepted whichever sort of approach on my part? On the part of the gloomy, vituperated, avoided, feared, horrible, cruel God of the Underworld? And, besides that... "

Once again Hades was silent, before resuming in a firmer voice.

"Your mother, Persephone. I am antique, my young goddess, as antique as the world you know and even more. I know all about it and about the gods that govern it. And just as I know well your father and what he is, in the same way I know well your mother. And what she is."

Another short, expressive pause. Intense and tense.

"I would never have been able to convince your mother, Persephone. It's not next to a man, Human or God, that she thinks it may be your destiny. She thinks your destiny is to be her daughter forever. And nothing else and nothing more."

Hades gazed intensely at Persephone, as he spoke.

"Disrespectful of whatever it may be I do not say your yet unripened desires or your aspirations yet in bud, but also simply and even your will."

Persephone gasped.

She opened and closed desperately several times her mouth as if looking for air.

She panted.

 _The_ _truth_ _!_

 _The raw truth!_

The raw truth of her relationship with her mother!

Of her... unhappiness.

How harsh it was to hear it crudely thrown on her face!

And... and by the most improbable of beings who could have done it.

By Hades!

"So, Persephone ..." Hades' voice was now firm and sure again. "... I decided that the only means for..." A hesitation. A manifest hesitation. "... for having you it was to kidnap you."

Unexpectedly, at those words, Persephone shouted.

With indignation.

With a vibrant voice.

With blazing eyes.

"And you did it!"

Hades remained completely gobsmacked.

The great Hades stood astounded. Unable to speak.

And maybe…

Was it guilt and shame what could be glimpsed in those eyes of him, beyond the world?

"I…"

He could not finish what he was desperately trying to say. And did not know how to say.

"You did it, o god of nothing!"

Persephone's eyes looked like two ice-blue embers. Her voice was fire.

"Without thinking in the least of what my will could be! Like my mother. Worse than my mother! Because, at least, she is my mother! You... you're nothing! "

The iron-clad right hand rose imperiously.

The otherworldly eyes sparkled dangerous.

The voice died choked in Persephone's throat.

She fell silent, her trembling eyes fixed on those glittering of Hades.

His voice, deep and sour - resolute and firm. And gloomy. And… arcanely sad. - resounded mighty in nothingness.

"I'm nothing, it's true. Just as nothing is what you and I are now in, Persephone. But…"

The hand lowered.

The harsh and scratchy voice lowered.

It softened.

"But you are not yet in the middle of my realm, Persephone."

The hand moved to indicate with a wide, slow gesture the nothingness all around.

"This is the vestibule, Persephone. The entrance. The nothingness that must be crossed to reach the true reality of my kingdom. "

The voice rose in tone. It was powerful now, though still low.

"You can choose, Persephone. You can go further. You can go further into the kingdom of Hades. Or you can decide otherwise. You can instead decide to return to your world, to your mother. You can decide. Now and here. The choice is yours. Whichever it may be, I will comply it. I'll take you down with me, deep inside, if you want it. Or I'll take you back there above, to your mother, to your safe world of ever, if it's this what you want. And I will bring you back to your world even if - once you will have crossed the threshold and savoured my kingdom and, if you will wish... me too - you will want to reject both. My kingdom. And me."

A pause. Short and powerful.

Like the last words of Hades.

"The choice is yours."

Silence reigned for a long time in that place of silence.

Stern and waiting, Hades stood staring at Persephone.

Unquiet and confused, Persephone stood staring at Hades.

Confused as never she had been.

Confused in the mind and soul.

Finally, she found the voice.

She spoke.

In a faint and uncertain voice, she spoke.

"The choice is mine."

"The choice is yours, Persephone."

And the tone of that voice was warm. The tone of the voice of the Lord of the Underworld.

Warm. _And reassuring._

Much as incredible it could seem.

"And..." Persephone's voice, if possible, resounded even more tremulous and weak, but her words were clear. "... and you... you, my lord... you will... will respect me? You... you will not take advantage of me against... against my will?"

"I will do so, Persephone."

"But..."

Persephone would never have been able to say where she found such a courage. The courage to say what she said.

To the Lord of the Underworld!

And nevertheless...

With a trembling voice, of course...

Nevertheless she said it.

"But can I trust you, my Lord?"

Persephone leaped back before Hades' flaming gaze.

And yet, she did not desist.

Although she trembled like a leaf, she did not desist.

"You have kidnapped me, my Lord. You have already acted without taking into account my will."

The flame eyes lost all ardour.

The alabaster face seemed to become even paler.

And Hades' voice seemed almost made of the nothing that surrounded him and Persephone.

"It's true, I did it."

Then, that face regained puissance.

Like that voice, harsh and... fascinating.

"But I explained to you why I did it, and I know you have understood. And, Persephone..."

The voice grew mighty again.

"... the Lord of the Underworld never lies. There is no place for lies in my realm. And in me. And I know that you know it."

Yes. Persephone knew it.

The abominable God of the Underworld never lied.

He was the God of the place where lying was useless and vain.

That was his law.

Persephone was quiet for a few moments, not ceasing his and her eyes to stare at each other.

Then, in a more tranquil voice, no longer trembling, with gentle calmness...

"But why should I follow you in the depths of your kingdom, my Lord? Why should I choose to be brought by you... further down? Why should I ever accept the impossible challenge of ..." And at this point Persephone's voice trembled again. It trembled strongly. "...of..."

And she could not continue.

And it was Hades, who did it.

It was him.

"Of teaching love to The One who does not know love."

Persephone's breath was a faint, imperceptible sigh.

Hades' voice was a faint, imperceptible murmur.

"Sure. Why should you ever?"

He turned again.

His gaze sank into nothingness.

His voice seemed made of that nothingness.

Persephone seemed to see, to feel, that gaze of him, lost into that nothingness. She seemed to sense that nothingness.

The desperate nothingness of a hopeless loneliness.

Inside him.

Inside herself.

Inside his rueful words.

"For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?"

* * *

 _ **End of Chapter**_ ** _Thirteen_**

 _ **TBC**_

 **oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo**

 _Sure._

 _ **For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**_


	14. Chapter Fourteen

**For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**

 **By Asso**

 **Chapter Fourteen**

* * *

 _The will of Destiny._

 _Or…_

* * *

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

She almost did not notice. It was her hand that moved. As driven by its own will.

Or, perhaps, by a higher will.

The will of Destiny?

Or maybe... an even higher will?

The will of... her heart?

She did not think about it.

 _She did not want to think about it!_

But her hand had no doubts.

It rose up.

Gentle and delicate, it went to rest on the small portion of skin, left exposed from the helmet, of his mighty shoulder, covered by the black iron armour.

Her light and sensitive fingers did perceive that skin.

They felt its hardness. Its otherworldly cold.

And yet they also sensed its smoothness.

The strange softness.

 _The pleasant softness._

And something...

Like a kind of myriad of hot sparks that broke its frost. That… that hid like a promise of concealed, rip-roaring heat.

As if overwhelmed, her hand withdrew precipitously.

But it had done it.

It had settled on his skin.

It had called him.

And, at that call, he turned.

And his eyes beyond the world once again rested on her.

Puzzled and questioning, they rested on her.

* * *

 _What eyes... what outrageous eyes are profaning with their lubricous gaze the purity of my daughter? Of my Persephone?_

* * *

Zeus withdrew a little.

He knew very well that his wife had made fun of him, but he knew just as well that she had offered him a way out.

In her own way, of course. But she had done it.

And it was a good way out.

He composed himself.

He straightened in all his impressive height.

He nodded gravely.

With ostentatious self-assurance.

"Very well, wife, I think I have established with shrewd wisdom the course that my action will have to follow."

Hera's eyes winked slyly.

"Of course, my husband and lord. You have established the best path to follow."

Zeus could not help it. He coughed with slight embarrassment.

But - it must be said in his honour - he quickly recovered.

What the hell! Was he or was he not Zeus?

"Exact." And his voice was firm and sure. "And no one will ever suspect of whom the eyes..." And at this point, Zeus' voice betrayed a clear note of disquiet. "... of whom the eyes could be that are currently looking at Persephone."

* * *

Helios shuddered.

Incredible, is not it? The conductor of the solar chariot that shivered!

But how could it not be done?

He...

He was ancient.

He had seen so many things.

He had even seen the eyes...

…the upsetting spectral eyes…

…of…

 _Hades!_

The eyes that he knew that, at that moment, were looking at Persephone with their netherworld gaze.

* * *

Those eyes... his eyes... Hades' eyes... were indescribable.

Of Ice and Fire.

Of everything and nothing.

Never more than at that moment, Persephone perceived it.

Yet... yet they were also beautiful.

Wonderfully beautiful.

Wonderfully...

Wonderfully sad.

Wonderfully sweet.

Wonderfully eager.

In their perplexity... in their silent request... they were eager.

Wishful.

For...

 _FOR…_

Persephone swallowed conspicuously.

The desire of those eyes...

The _desperate_ desire of those eyes...

Their unexpressed hope...

Pushed her.

Prodded her.

Spurred her.

She lowered her gaze for a moment. Then she lifted it. And she looked straight with her eyes of sky and sea in those eyes of nothingness.

And softly she spoke.

And the words flowed directly from her heart.

They revealed what her heart knew and wanted to say.

Not openly, not clearly, not plainly.

But they did it.

And Persephone knew it.

And she did not fight to stop the impulse of her heart.

She let it be it - her heart - to speak.

Without asking anything else.

Without asking questions.

Without asking any reason why.

Without invoking Destiny.

Without cursing its indecipherable will.

"It has not been Zeus, my lord. It has not been my father to drive my steps to the forest."

They did it. Hades' eyes widened.

Abysses of sudden wonder and hope.

"It has been… it has been…?" His voice was almost inaudible. "You mean that… that it has been… you?"

As overwhelmed by what she had just said - by what she had implicitly admitted - Persephone widened her eyes in turn.

She swallowed again.

Then she sighed deeply.

She struggled desperately to master the tumult that stirred inside her.

Again, she swallowed.

Again, she sighed.

She narrowed her eyes.

She hid her hands that did not know how to stand still behind her back.

Finally, at last, she managed to say something.

A question.

A twofold question.

Of which she knew the answer.

"Why, my Lord, can I see what your helmet conceals from the sight of all the others? And why, in realizing it, you asked me why I penetrated into the forest?"

Yes. She knew the answer!

But she was afraid of that answer!

And she...

She wanted Hades to find other answers.

More... reassuring!

Or... or maybe...

Persephone felt shaking inside.

 _Or maybe she just wanted Hades to give her the answer she already knew?_

His voice was soft.

It was sweet.

With levity, it rose to quell her inner turmoil.

And in it, clear and perfectly perceptible, there was a note of tense hope, now.

"Persephone, wouldn't you like to try to find the answer yourself?"

* * *

 _Persephone! My daughter! Hold on! Resist those eyes! That look! Of whomever they are! Do not give up! Do not tremble! I will find you! I will find out who will know how to give me answers! Who will tell me of whom those impudent eyes are!_

* * *

Helios knew Hades' strength.

It was not a force made of violence.

Yes. With violence, Persephone had been taken from her world.

But Helios knew there would be no more violence.

Hades did not need violence.

His eyes...

His eyes could do everything.

Persephone was lost.

And he too, Helios, would get lost if he'd revealed that he knew where Persephone was now.

Hades' eyes, in this case, would rest on him.

And he too would get lost.

And in a very differently way from that of Persephone.

Hades' eyes... his unendurable look...

No! He, Helios, could not even think he could be the object of that look, of those annihilating eyes!

* * *

Trembling was Persephone's voice.

Yet her words were firm.

And her gaze was quiet, as she spoke, as her hands regained calm and showed themselves again, by moving softly to underline her words.

"The answer, my Lord, is in your realm? Is that what you mean? I should go with you further - _further down_ \- to find the answer?"

Hades didn't reply.

He stood silent.

And his eyes stood quiet.

In wait.

Persephone remained for long moments staring at those eyes.

Then, proudly, she straightened her shoulders.

Almost impudently, she returned Hades' gaze.

It no longer trembled, her voice.

It resounded perfectly calm.

"Tell me, my lord, how is your real kingdom? What lies..." Her arm gestured all around. "...beyond this dead nothingness?"

This time Hades answered.

Calmly and quietly, he spoke.

"It's up to you to find it out, Persephone. If you want it."

Persephone remained silent, her gaze fixed on his.

Then, slowly, majestically, with a broad and regal gesture, she held out her hand to Hades, for him to take it.

"Lead me beyond, my Lord. Bring me in the depths of your realm."

* * *

 ** _End_** ** _of Chapter Fourteen_**

 ** _TBC_**

 **oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo**

 _The will of Destiny._

 _Or…_

 _ **The will of the heart?**_


	15. Chapter 15

**For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**

 **By Asso**

 **Chapter Fifteen**

* * *

 _The shore of the afterlife_

* * *

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

It had been another race. A different race.

Fast, frantic, yes. Like the first one.

But, somehow - in some strange way - quieter.

And intoxicating.

Hades had shaken the reins.

Slightly.

Calmly.

And the black steeds had come back to life.

They had neighed. But not strongly. They had neighed softly. As if they were aware of the uniqueness of what was happening, of the fact that for the first and certainly only time they were going to carry "beyond" someone else besides their master.

Someone who, perhaps, would have been at the side of their master.

As mistress of their master.

Then they had reared up.

And then had sprung.

Powerfully.

Forwards and upwards.

She had clung to him.

Yes. She had clung to him.

Without even thinking about what she was doing.

Or perhaps, imbued with this thought.

She had clung to him because she could not do anything else.

Or, perhaps, because she wanted to do it.

She had chased away that thought.

But in any case...

In any case she had clung to him.

To Hades.

With her heart in her throat.

And with her eyes well open.

 _Wide open_ , this time.

To see.

To...

To savour.

The steeds had gone up.

They had gone up...

Had gone up...

High up, higher and higher.

An ascent that had taken her breath away.

And then, finally, as if they had reached the summit of a hallucinating parabola...

They had dived down.

Like bolts of lightning.

In that nothingness.

The rushing wind of the sudden plunge had lashed her face.

Had made flutter her hair and her dress.

Had boxed her breath down into her throat.

She had clung even more to him.

And his hand...

His arm...

Strong, powerful...

They had held her tightly.

Protective.

In his firm grip, Persephone had enveloped herself.

While the chariot rushed down.

More and more down.

Dragged by the unchained steeds.

Down.

In the nothingness that never seemed to end.

And which, instead, had suddenly come to the end.

She had widened her eyes.

In wonder.

In amazement.

In the desire to see.

What only she could see.

Only she.

Besides him.

See and...

And enjoy.

Strange, absurd, in truth...

But yet...

Yet Persephone had felt this idea vivid in her; this crazy thought.

Other Gods had seen what she was seeing; other Gods besides him. Beside her.

But she could see his kingdom with eyes different from those of the other Gods.

She could see it...

With his eyes!

And she had seen as they were coming down...

Immense spaces.

Immense vaults.

Of rock.

Vivid.

Brilliant.

Shining with myriads of luminous points that shone in the darkness.

There was frost.

Yes. There was frost.

There was...

There was the frost of death!

But there was also...

 _There was also..._

What was it?

Like something... of sacred.

Of the sacredness of eternity.

More sacred, more eternal than... than the heavenly abode of the supernal Gods.

Than the ethereal palace itself of her father.

Of Zeus.

It was as if the air, that strange and motionless air, resounded with something that was - could be - only there.

Something mighty, mightier than anything else.

And Persephone - confusedly, nebulously - had understood.

There, there was the end of everything.

 _There, there was the end._

 _The end forever._

It was the realm of the end of everything.

And how could it not be cold, that kingdom - his kingdom? The kingdom that sanctioned the end?

The end of everything?

Of what had been.

And of what could have been.

And of what would never be again.

There could not be frost there.

And yet...

Yet there was greatness.

A greatness... a greatness suffused with hope.

A strange, absurd hope.

A wish.

Melancholic.

Yet vivid. Mighty.

Tenacious.

Of a possible new beginning.

A desire of life!

Persephone had perceived that greatness.

She had breathed it.

A greatness that inspired awe.

 _The greatness of eternity._

It was possible to breath that eternity.

It was possible to feel it all around.

It penetrated your bones.

Unto the deepest and more secret corner of your soul.

And Persephone had thrust open her mind, besides her eyes.

And her mind...

Her mind... her spirit...

They had wondered...

Even in the tumult in which she had felt, they had found themselves wondering...

 _How could he_ _..._ _how could Hades_ _... stay_ _there_ _?_

How could he... how had he been able, for all those aeons, to rule that kingdom made of icy eternity? Of an eternity too great for one to bear? And how could he think of continuing to do it?

What sort... what sort of immense God was he, capable of resisting, sane, in such a place? Of governing it, even? And with lucid and firm impartiality, in addition. Because on this, no one ever - even in the most horrid things that were said of him - had put forward the slightest doubt.

Hades was the terrible, reviled Lord of Death.

But he was a just Lord.

Inflexible, but just.

Only... only a greater, more powerful God, in some inconceivable way, than any other God, could be what Hades was!

And Persephone had felt herself flare up at that sudden, unexpected thought.

Which had bloomed fiery inside her - uncontrollable - in the impetuous descent of the chariot to the depths of his kingdom.

And even more she had felt herself flare up and had felt bewilderment within herself, when at that thought, another - rapid and strong - had been following.

And... and that God - immense and mighty more than any other God, perhaps... perhaps even more than her father, than Zeus! - ... that God... wanted her!

He wanted her to break the chill of his kingdom. Of that suffocating eternity.

The chill of his alienating solitude.

Persephone had felt a feeling rise within her.

A feeling...

Pride!

But how could it be?

Yet it was so!

Pride!

Pride, pride, pride!

She... she was the chosen one!

By him and by Destiny!

The one the icy, otherworldly, terrifying, remote, powerful, immense Hades had thought could be able to warm up his heart of ice!

The one whom Destiny had chosen for such a huge, terrifying task!

Persephone had felt her head spinning, in the whirlwind of those thoughts.

Absurd thoughts! Grotesque thoughts!

And yet...

Yet she had agreed to be led down.

She had... she had wanted to be carried down!

By him!

Down.

Towards...

Towards...

And Persephone had seen.

Her eyes wide open in wonder had seen.

Waters.

The infernal rivers.

And her soul had sensed - her lungs had been able to breathe - the arcane magic that rose from them.

She had held her breath, while the chariot lowered towards those waters from which perspired eternity.

She had held herself even tighter to Hades, while the chariot slowed.

While the black horses braked their impetuous gallop.

Up to a halt.

On the banks of the magical river.

The Styx.

Persephone had understood it.

Or better…

They were…

She had seen a gray boat be silhouetted on the dark waters. Lonely.

And she had seen the dark shape of the boatman.

And she had seen the vast multitude of transparent forms that thronged on the bank.

Waiting for the boat to touch the shore.

 _They were…_

They were on the banks of the dark river that of the Styx was the herald, the river whose doleful waters were intended to throw themselves in the Styx, were destined to bestow it on its whirlwind force, to ignite its arcane magic, a magic that inspired awe and reverence even in the Gods, whose oaths on it couldn't be broken. Not even by them.

They were on the banks, crowded with shadows - silent, waiting - of the Acheron.

The border.

Between life and death.

Hades had looked at her.

Her eyes beyond life and beyond death had fixed her.

She had gazed at those eyes.

Had understood the silent question that shone through in them.

She had nodded.

Had speechlessly said yes.

Without a word, Hades had turned his gaze away.

He had fixed it forward, towards the black waters of the river.

His right arm had embraced her shoulders.

His left arm had once again shaken the reins.

The chariot had moved.

Slowly, majestically, it had begun to advance.

Towards the river.

Towards its dark, murky waters.

It had ploughed through the crowd of souls, who in mute amazement, had divided up as into two wings to give way to its slow advance.

The chariot had reached the limit where the terrain gave way to water.

It had stopped for a moment.

The boat, over there, was still.

As suspended.

Like its tenebrous conductor.

Persephone had clutched spasmodically in Hades' arm.

With a soft snap, the chariot had moved again.

It had begun to move forward again.

Like a magical feather, it had advanced on the water.

The dark hooves of the black steeds had trampled the soft waves of the river as if they were solid terrain.

And slowly, solemnly, the chariot had left the shore.

It had crossed - slowly, solemnly, marching on its waters, now absolutely firm - the tragic river.

It had reached the other shore.

The shore of the afterlife.

* * *

 _ **End of Chapter Fifteen**_

 _ **TBC**_

 **oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo**

 _Here we are._

 _We are on the border of the underworld._

 _Persephone is going to penetrate the tenebrous, unknown kingdom of the afterlife._

 _Hades' realm._


	16. Chapter sixteen

**For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**

 **By Asso**

 **Chapter Sixteen**

* * *

 _Inside_

* * *

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

To him, first of all. Yes. Right to him.

To her... august brother.

To her maligned seducer.

To Zeus.

To her daughter's father.

He... he had to know.

Or, at least, he would have been able to know.

Was or was he not he the Lord of all and of all things?

Demeter shook herself.

For eight long, endless days she had searched everywhere.

In vain.

Unaware of what had happened, unaware of the chasm that had stretched from the forest of nothingness towards her daughter, only aware of the fact that the horrible presentiment that had suddenly caused her to get up in anxious flight on the lawn where she knew that surely her daughter was had translated into the horrible reality of her disappearance, she had sought.

She had looked for her. Her daughter. Persephone.

And she had not been able to find any trace.

Now it was time to do what she had promised herself to do.

It was time to find who could have the answer.

Zeus... he...

Yes, he could have that answer or, anyway, could have the means to get it.

And also to bring back Persephone. From wherever she was.

From the clutches of anyone who could be her kidnapper.

Because on this Demeter had not the slightest doubt.

Persephone had been kidnapped.

Never would she have voluntarily left her, her mother!

Never.

NEVER!

Of course. N… never. S… sure. Was this something to be doubted? Was it?

 **WAS IT!?**

And so...

So to Zeus.

Yes.

To Zeus.

And to Zeus Demeter flew.

Squeezing deep down in herself that... that annoying, disturbing thought...

That thought…

 _That nagging thought._

How was... how was it possible that Persephone had disappeared... kidnapped... yes! Kidnapped!... with that enormity of surveillance she was subjected to?

Right... right by Zeus?

Who, almost obsessively, had forced her, Demeter, to never lose sight of Persephone.

As if he...

As if he knew...

 _That something could happen!_

And that 'something' had happened.

But...

But so then...?

So then, where had Zeus ever been, while that something was happening?

And Demeter could not help but hear again in her ears the dull and powerful rumble she had heard, as she... exactly as she was hurtling through the air, lashed by the horrible unconscious suggestion that something horrible was happening; to her Persephone.

She could not help but feel again the dismay she had felt in the deep and inexplicable darkness that for long moments had overshadowed everything.

She could not help but hear again in her ears that voice, which had resounded in that darkness, in the storm that had risen - it too, incomprehensible - as if being... as if being giving breath to her fears, to her anxiety, to her... to her tremendous premonition.

Demeter could not help but remember, hear again, that powerful voice... that roar of anger... huge...

 _As only the angry voice of Zeus could be._

But angry _…_ _why?_

Because he, the supreme God, had not been able to... to prevent that 'something' from happening...

Or because... because he...?

 _Why was that voice angry?_

 _Why that darkness_ _?_

 _That storm?_

The storm... the storm was the prerogative of Zeus.

HE WAS THE MASTER OF THE STORM!

Possible that... possible that he... that he had something to do with... with...?

That thought - unheard-of, atrocious - crept into the depths of Demeter's soul, while she darted through the air towards the dwelling of the Supernal Gods.

Towards Zeus' palace.

* * *

"Here, we have arrived. This is my home."

In front of Persephone... now...

An immense thing.

A... a palace.

Yes.

A palace.

 _A royal residence._

Of stone.

Black.

Dark.

Yet sparkling with a thousand lights. Similar to those she had seen on the high stone vaults, on the huge rock faces.

Hades' hushed voice spoke again.

"My palace, Persephone."

It kept quiet a moment.

Then… even more hushed…

"Ours, if you will want it, Persephone."

Persephone's mind was too full with the wonders she had seen...

The Stygian swamp... the asphodel fields... the Blessed island, just glimpsed from afar, yet so enthralling, so magical...

Too full was her mind with the things she had seen in their quiet journey...

In that darkness which darkness was not; mysteriously dimly illuminated by that light which light was not...

In that frost which frost was not; arcanely tenuously heated by a heat which heat was not...

Too full was her mind with those things that she would never imagine she could even imagine...

Too, too full.

And too full were her eyes with those otherworldly wonders, with those wonders so imbued with a sense of eternity...

A sensation of eternity so different from the one you could feel above...

So solemn...

So... so steeped in eternity!

Too filled, her mind. Too filled, her eyes.

Too full of the vision, in the darkness, of that palace made of darkness and of gloomy light.

Too full, for her to realize, for her to be able to capture what Hades' words meant.

Their deep meaning.

Too much full her mind; too much full her eyes, for her to be able to understand that Hades had just told her that he would want to make her not his woman. Not simply this.

But rather...

 _His_ _bride._

 _His_ _queen._

The only thing she could see, that she could try to internalize, now, was that palace.

That immense palace.

Larger than the abode of her father. Of Zeus.

Dusky.

 _And bewitching._

And its huge portal.

A double door portal.

Absolutely unadorned.

Of gray and dark stone.

Which rose so high as to seem to want to invade the world above.

In front of it, on what looked like a hugely large forecourt of gray terrain facing it, the black steeds stopped their quiet trot.

Persephone felt Hades' gaze on her.

Almost unconsciously, her head moved.

It nodded.

Slowly, the immense portals began to open.

Silently.

They burst open wide.

Beyond the threshold...

Nothing.

Nothing could be seen.

The deepest darkness.

Persephone shuddered.

Hades' arm squeezed her.

Why? _Why ever did she feel reassured by that arm?_

Why? _Why ever did her head nod again?_

The reins snapped softly.

The chariot started to move slowly again.

The very high top of the portal seemed to recede behind them as the chariot proceeded through the threshold.

It seemed to observe her.

Now the doors were behind them.

They began to close, slowly.

Now they were closed.

Completely.

Persephone held her breath.

She was inside, now.

Closed inside.

Inside!

Into the cold darkness of the gloomy dwelling of her captor.

Of Hades.

Of the King of Underworld.

* * *

 ** _End of Chapter Sixteen_**

 ** _TBC_**

 **oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo**

 _ **INSIDE**_


	17. Chapter seventeen

**For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**

 **By Asso**

 **Chapter Seventeen**

* * *

 _The_ _ninth day_

* * *

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

"So then?"

Zeus turned his head with ostentatious annoyance.

Sometimes Poseidon's attitude was really irritating.

So... direct!

So cheekily curt!

But he was his brother.

And he was the mighty God of the Sea.

And, last but not least, he was not used to meddling in business that was beyond the confines of his kingdom. Unless it was "skirts". Yeah. He was not dissimilar, Poseidon, from him. The females ... well the females counted a lot, for both. Even if both of them had tied themselves to a single female in the sacred bond of marriage. Without having too much to worry about the aforementioned female, though.

Another point of contact.

Really different, he and Poseidon, from their older brother.

From their brother made of shadow.

From the brother, however, who had now decided to get out of the shadow.

An instant. Just an instant. Long. But only an instant in the Gods' eternity.

A tremendous instant, however.

An instant that had shaken the universe.

And that had pushed Poseidon out of the depths of his kingdom to ask him, Zeus, to provide explanations.

He was Zeus. The Lord of the Gods.

So he had to know what had happened. Or at least he was in possession of the means and the authority to know it.

And... and it was suspicious, somehow, that he had remained silent for eight long days, without letting know anything about it. Especially... especially considering that he was the lord of the storm and that a storm - a terrible storm - had for long moments overshadowed the world. And that, in the middle of that storm, his voice - his angry roar - had been clearly perceptible.

Zeus sighed to himself.

He felt his wife's amused look on him.

His wife.

That damn female!

Who had been right.

The whole world, a crowd of gods, had poured out in front of his palace!

One after the other, they had arrived. In small groups or alone.

Oh yes, of course! He and... well, yes... he and his wife had planned everything, had arranged everything, point by point.

But one thing is to program, another thing is to act.

And, as far as he was the personification of the resolute force and the brazen boldness... well, in that case...

In that particular case...

Oh, in short!

It was not easy! It was not easy at all!

So hard that he had ordered Hermes to let everyone know that he did not want to be bothered, because ... because...

Well, it was his business!

Ed Hermes - with wide open eyes and full of unspoken questions - had obeyed.

But those had not left. They had waited. There. In front of his palace.

Amazed and uncertain.

But they had not left.

And after eight days of waiting, he had no longer been able to play dumb. He had had to grant an audience.

And, on the other hand, how to deny the audience to those who were the Great Gods? Apollo, Athena, Aphrodite, Hephaestus... Hermes himself... yes, him too.

They too had rushed. And amazed at not being able to be admitted to his presence.

And the coup de grace had been inflicted by him. By Poseidon.

In the end he too had arrived. Covered with algae and foam.

And he was Poseidon.

It was unthinkable to deny himself to him.

So, in the end, he had had to resign himself and, now, they were all there.

Inside his palace.

To know.

And Poseidon, impetuous as usual, had overpowered everyone, with the rip-roaring waves of his fiery temperament.

He had raised his blue and thick eyebrow.

And had posed the question in his own way.

"So then?"

Just this. Nothing else.

More than enough, though.

Such as to silence all the others.

Because those two very short words summed up everyone's question.

Zeus felt everyone's gaze on him.

Oh, for that bastard of his father Cronos!

What the hell was wrong with him?

It was not really the case to feel embarrassed!

That was a term that was not part of the baggage of terms that could describe him!

He didn't...

He was Zeus!

He could not and should not feel embarrassed!

What embarrassment could there ever be in answering that he had no idea what had happened?

He was the Lord of everything! Not the causal factor of everything! He was not at all required to know the cause of everything!

What was that strange thing? How could he feel embarrassed?

Perhaps because...?

Zeus felt something strange inside him. Something that hurt.

Something he had never felt.

Why did he feel embarrassed?

Perhaps because...

Perhaps because he knew the why of what had happened?

Perhaps because he knew exactly _what_ had happened?

And he had to deny he knew?

Because... because...

Because he could not reveal that he had bowed his head in front of Hades?

Because he could not let people know that - he being consenting, for more! Although this was really something not to be said! - ... that the claw of the Avernus had grabbed...

* * *

Eight days had passed.

Eight strange days.

Persephone lay in her bed.

In her room.

Without sleeping.

Thinking.

Of those strange days.

Eight days.

 _During which nothing had happened._

By and by, the daybreak would dawn.

If it was possible to talk of dawn, there.

A change, barely hinted - nothing more - in that dark light that enveloped everything; a slight toning towards something someway more like the true light than the darkness.

But, anyway, that livid dawn would come up and that would be the ninth dawn of that dark realm that Persephone would see rise.

And, like all the other dawns, it would bring with it... loneliness.

All day long.

Until evening.

When he would appear.

To keep her company during dinner.

In silence.

Almost without eating.

By staying to watch her eating.

For then leaving her at the end of the dinner.

With a slight bow.

With a whispered "Good night, Persephone".

So it had been during all those days.

 _During which nothing had happened._

Persephone sat up on the bed.

She curled up on it, gathering her knees against her and wrapping herself tightly in the blanket.

Because it was cold.

That too, strange. Like light.

The air was warm.

Yet it was cold.

Persephone enveloped herself even more tightly in the blanket.

A very soft blanket.

And really precious.

Of black and of gold. And interwoven with silver threads.

Precious.

Like the clothes that she would wear during the day.

She knew that, when she would get up, she would find them in her room.

Every day different.

Every day more and more precious.

But always of black and of gold. And intertwined with silver threads.

Even that day it would be like that.

As it had been in those days.

 _During which nothing had happened._

Persephone's gaze turned to look at her room. It lingered over it.

It was a very large room. Very, very large.

The walls...

She remembered the impression those walls had made to her when Hades had led her to it, guiding her through the long, huge, winding corridors of his gigantic palace.

They were stone, those walls without windows.

Stone.

As the whole palace.

They were cold.

And yet... they were also strangely warm.

They were dark.

Yet they shone tenuously,

By the myriad of tiny lights that seemed set in them.

Lights like those she had seen shine in the rest of the palace and even before, in the high rocky vaults, in the deep rocky cliffs and in the rugged rocky walls of that stone kingdom.

Persephone could not understand how - maybe it was just by virtue of those lights - yet to her they did not appear gloomy, those gloomy walls.

Just as the room in the whole.

And the furniture in it.

All strictly in black and gold. And dotted with silver.

That large, austere room of living rock, enriched by that precious and austere furniture - austere, sure, yet both of them so mysteriously and subtly appealing, like... like their master - had been the place of her rest and her dinners... with him... for all those days.

 _During which nothing had happened._

Yeah. The place of her rest.

But not of her vigils.

"This is your room, Persephone. I hope it pleases you."

His words, when he had made her come into what would be her lodgings, resounded in her mind.

"Here you can rest and stay at your leisure and here I will come to see you, if you want it. But the whole palace is at your disposal. You can travel through it far and wide, how and when you want. Do not try to get out, though, outside the palace. It is not... it is not safe places, these, and only with me you can wander around safely in my kingdom. And I will do, if you ask me to do it."

Her gaze, which until then had remained to examine the large room, had rested, questioningly, on him.

His arcane eyes had then assumed a strange, unprecedented expression. As if they wanted to apologize.

And strangely uncertain had sounded his voice.

"I do not want to force you anything, Persephone, I told you. I will do what you ask me to do."

Then his voice had come back strong and firm.

"But here in the Palace, you are the Lady and Mistress. Only..." And his voice had taken on a strange tone, between the amused and the apologetic. "... I regret to tell you that you will not have anyone who can keep you company in the Palace."

The voice had become somber.

"I am a solitary king."

He had stood watching her for a moment, then had bowed his head, as if in polite greeting, and finally had turned for heading towards the wide door of the room.

He had gone out into the corridor and from there he had spoken to her one last time.

"Whatever you need, it will be enough for you to say it or even only to think it and it will be done." A slight bow of the head yet. "Now I leave you, Persephone. My kingdom ..." A slight laugh; sardonic; but even... bitter. "... does not allow his King to neglect it for long. I'll be with you tomorrow, for dinner, if you allow it."

And, closing the door softly, he was gone.

And she had remained there. In what was now her room.

To think about what her new life would be.

And about his words.

 _That was the room where she could rest._

And she was tired.

Exhausted.

Emptied out.

Her gaze had settled on the large bed which towered imposingly against a wall of the room.

An instant. And she had found herself lying on the bed.

An instant. And she had found herself in a deep and dreamless sleep.

And the dawn had come. Her first dawn in that world with no night and with no day.

She had awakened in that bed.

Her brain had laboriously focused on the room. Had realized where she was.

Had remembered what had happened.

Had - in awe - recalled her choices. The choices she had made.

She had been kidnapped.

By... by Hades!

But she was there for her own choice!

The first truly autonomous choice of her life. Not made... not made under the influence of her mother!

She had got up, almost with difficulty.

For the first time, she had scanned attentively the room. And the furniture in it. Dwelling on every detail.

And for the first time she had seen the garments. Dresses prepared for her. On a sofa.

Black and gold robes and intertwined with silver threads.

Beautiful dresses. Precious.

And... provocative.

She... she had worn them, after having satisfied her physiological needs in a not little ancillary room, specifically set for this purpose in one of the walls, and after having washed herself in the dark and fresh water that flowed quietly from a beak on the wall, pouring itself into a large tub of dark stone.

She had looked at herself in the mirror.

A large, huge wall mirror, with a frame of black and gold and dotted with silver.

She had...

She had liked herself!

She had liked the reflected image of that girl dressed in that black dress sustained only by a single thin shoulder strap and with that deep neckline that fully revealed the turgidity of the breasts and that wide slit at both sides that let see the thighs at every step.

She had looked at herself for a long time and then, suddenly, she had felt hungry.

And then, just then, as her mind had suddenly started to picture inside itself food and drink, she… had smelled the perfume!

She had turned abruptly around and she had seen.

On a large dark marble table. Fruit. A lot. Of all kinds. And honey. And bread. And other viands, by the fragrant and appetizing aroma. And pitchers full of fresh water and some other kind of unknown drinks.

She had eaten. Voraciously and with pleasure. The foods she knew and, albeit with some hesitation, even the foods she did not know. All exquisite.

She had quenched her thirst. Greedily and with pleasure. Both the fresh water and, albeit with some hesitation, the other drinks. All delicious.

And then...

Then...

 _"... the whole palace is at your disposal. You can travel through it far and wide, how and when you want."_

So he had said.

And, at that moment, she had looked at the door. A long stare.

She had averted her gaze and had looked at herself in the mirror one more time.

With a sudden gesture, her hands had untangled her long and red-blond hair, making it fall in wild waves on her bare shoulders.

She had contemplated herself for a few moments, then she had turned her eyes to the sofa, looking at what lay on it yet. She had gone to the sofa and had grabbed the black and gold cloak woven with silver threads still lying on it, and with a broad gesture she had thrown it on her shoulders.

 _Because she knew that, out of there, she could feel cold. And she… she would…_

She had walked to the mirror and had watched herself one more time in it, while arranging the volutes of her hair on the wide collar of the hood.

Her reflected image had nodded to her, satisfied.

Then, with an air of decided, she had headed for the door.

She had reached it.

She had opened it.

She had peeked out into the corridor.

She had gone out into it.

She had looked around.

She had closed the door behind her.

And she had advanced into the palace.

And from that day on, she, every day, had explored the palace.

For all those days.

 _During which nothing had happened._

And even that day would be like that.

Yeah. Even that day.

Suddenly, resolutely, chasing away all those thoughts, Persephone jumped out of bed.

Her eyes went to the sofa.

There they were.

The clothes.

Stupendous.

Precious.

Different from those of the day before as well as from those of all the previous days.

Of black and of gold and interwoven with silver threads.

Daring and provocative.

Quietly and slowly, Persephone did what she had done in all previous days, after getting out of bed.

She satisfied her bodily needs.

She washed herself.

She combed herself.

She ate and drank the delicious food and fresh drinks waiting for her on the dark marble table.

Then she dressed, looking then in the mirror once again at the surprising and alluring image of that unknown girl by the provocative beauty.

Then, after wearing the hood as usual - another yet, similar and yet different and even more precious than those of the previous days - she headed for the door, as she had done every morning of those days.

Even that day she would go to the exploration of the palace, waiting for the evening and the dinner, when he would come.

That day too, solitude would have been her only company.

Not that loneliness displeased her.

She had always looked for it.

She had never been able to be alone, at least until the day of her abduction; stifled in her mother's overprotective embrace and heavily guarded by maids and watchmen.

And she remembered well the amazement she had felt when, on that day, she had been granted permission to stroll alone in the meadow.

It was a gift, that solitude. The solitude she had there, in that palace.

Just as it was a gift the wonder of the palace.

Going into it, exploring it... it was priceless!

Arcane, dark and mysterious environments, completely different from any environment she had ever seen, arising from the one another like dark jewels nestled in each other.

Each one different, each one to be savoured in its mystery.

Yes. Even that day would be like that.

Even that day, she would go in solitude to the exploration of some other obscurely and uncannily seductive environment of that huge palace.

Even that day...

Even that day nothing would happen.

No!

Like a flash.

Sudden.

Unexpected.

Unforeseen.

Incomprehensible, too.

That word.

That single, powerful word.

In her mind.

 **NO!**

That day would not be like that!

Was that why he had kidnapped her?

Were these the answers he had told her that she would find in his kingdom?

Was that why he continued to make her find those sumptuous and provocative clothes to wear?

Only to continue to make her remain alone?

Without...

Without ever him doing anything?

 **Never?**

Persephone could not understand herself, she could not even understand her own thoughts themselves.

But those were her thoughts!

And she...

She did not send them away!

If he wanted her, if he really wanted her, he had to... he had to...

He did not have to leave her alone!

 _He had to_ _..._

No. That day would not be like that!

On that day, she would not leave her room to continue exploring the palace.

That day she would stay in her room to...

To get ready!

Persephone looked at herself in the mirror again.

With an almost rabid gesture, she briskly seized the long hood that covered her entirely, took it off herself brusquely and hurled it away. Far away.

So, in this way, dressed only in the precious, daring dress that revealed so much of the exciting secrets of her young lush body, she saw herself for what she... yes... for what she not only appeared, but, also, really was.

A wonderful, splendid girl by the provocative beauty.

 **By the dark beauty!**

And, on that day, she would make that beauty even more overflowing.

Even more...

 **Even more exciting!**

Persephone sat on the black marble seat in front of the mirror.

She knew what she had to do.

It was sufficient for her to think.

And she thought.

Creams, perfumes, ointments.

And lipsticks of various shades, but all tending to red or black, among which she would choose.

And maquillages and toiletries of various types, but all pale and diaphanous, among which she would choose.

All of this appeared on the dark marble table.

Persephone had no idea how to make good use of them. The only knowledge she had, came to her from her observations of how Aphrodite used them. She had watched her so many times make herself beautiful, as the goddess, who more beautiful couldn't be, was coquettishly used to say.

Persephone smiled.

She would be able to make good use of them and, on the other hand, she had the whole day available.

The smile on Persephone's fresh face grew mischievous.

Yes. All day available to make herself a little more in harmony with the place where she was.

And… with Hades.

And she began to get ready.

 _All the day available._

She would use it well.

And, in the evening...

* * *

"PERSEPHONE!"

That name exploded in the air, before his thought could go to completion with the same name.

Zeus turned suddenly to look surprised at the one who that name had made burst out as a thunder, well knowing whom it belonged to that excited and shrill voice.

Demeter.

There she was.

Dishevelled.

Beside herself.

"Sister, what ...?"

"She disappeared! Persephone disappeared, Zeus!"

The most total frost fell into the palace.

Demeter watched wild-eyed Zeus, who was silent in everyone's stunned silence.

Her voice rose angrily.

"Did you understand, Zeus? Did you understand, brother?"

Her voice rose an octave.

"Persephone disappeared!"

Then it was as if something got broken inside Demeter.

Her eyes filled with tears.

So, with the cheeks streaked of those tears, she stood still for a moment and then, suddenly, she snapped.

She ran furiously toward Zeus, confronted him, grabbed him by the shoulders, shook him.

She shouted in his face.

"Disappeared, Zeus! Disappeared!"

And then, again, the crying broke out on her face.

She collapsed, fell to her knees in front of Zeus. The head bowed, the arms inert, the shoulders shaken by the sobs.

"Persephone disappeared." Like a mantra, her tremulous voice kept repeating it. "Disappeared disappeared disappeared..."

Then the ravaged face of Demeter lifted watching her brother.

"Kidnapped, Zeus."

An astonished murmur passed through the crowd of Gods.

"Yes, brother."

Demeter's voice rang out dull in the palace.

"I feel it, I know it."

The voice lowered in tone even more. Tragic. While Demeter lowered her head again.

"My daughter... your daughter... was kidnapped."

* * *

The evening was slowly approaching.

The morning had passed, light.

Persephone had used it well.

The image that she saw of herself in the mirror spoke volumes.

That was not the lilied girl who sighed for something she did not even know, enveloped in her virginal white tunic.

That was a provocative young woman whose tempting beauty could awaken the desire of a marble God.

And Hades - Persephone could not make sense of her thoughts, but she could not ignore them. Nor did she want it! - ... Hades had the alabastrine complexion of the marble, but… of marble he was certainly not made!

It was time for lunch.

Customarily, she was wont to be back at that hour to her room, knowing - after the experience of the first day - that she would find there something to refresh herself.

So she had done in the previous days.

Now, there was no need.

She was already there, in her room.

She turned.

There they were. The fragrant and tasty foods and the delicious drinks.

Usually, she nibbled absently something, before resting a little and then going back to the Palace for her exploration.

That day no.

That day she ate and drank with desire and with taste.

She needed it.

She was excited.

 _Pleasantly_ excited.

And... and also scared.

Of herself.

She finally stopped eating and drinking.

And she decided she had to rest.

A fortiori, today more than in the previous days.

She needed to be fresh and rested.

And in strength.

For the evening that would come.

* * *

"Persephone would never have left me spontaneously."

Demeter had got up and turned away.

She was speaking in a low, gloomy voice, her back turned to Zeus.

"There can be no doubt, brother. She was kidnapped."

She turned around.

She looked at Zeus with a desperate face, streaked with tears.

"My baby girl is in the clutches... in the clutches..."

Demeter could not continue.

Silence reigned sovereign.

Then, somehow, she managed to compose herself.

Eyes down, she whispered.

"I looked for her everywhere, for eight long days. In vain."

Then she shook herself.

She raised her face.

"Brother!" Rabid. "Brother, you..."

"I know everything, sister."

If before, when Demeter had asserted that Persephone had been kidnapped, there had been stupefied silence, now you could have clearly heard the stunned onlookers suck the air in through their teeth.

Demeter was dumbfounded.

She could do nothing but look at her brother with wide eyes, in which you could see astonishment and incomprehension.

It was Poseidon who broke that spell of silence.

His voice seemed to have in itself the dull and frightening sound of far, deep and lethal marine eddies.

"Explain yourself, brother."

Of course, he did not mean to put his brother in awe and, on the other hand, how could Zeus be put in awe? But no one who was not Zeus could have stay not shaken at the tone of that voice woven of the threatening, mighty force of the sea abysses.

Zeus looked at his brother for a moment with a hard and haughty look, without deigning Demeter for a glance.

Then he turned around.

He turned his back to the crowd of gods, as if he did not care about them.

Then, in a low and powerful voice, he spoke.

It was Zeus the one who spoke.

The King of the Gods.

"I rule the universe and the storm is my mark."

Zeus' voice grew even mightier.

"Of the storm I am the master and I alone can unleash it under the sky."

The King of Gods turned around.

His deep blue eyes pierced Poseidon.

"Not even you, my brother, can equal with your marine storms the disruptive force of my sky storms. And, without me, without the powerful and wild winds of my storms, vain would be the strength of your waves."

Zeus' eyes darted around. They flickered on the silent crowd of gods and goddesses.

"It is by my will that the blue of the sky can become black. It is by my will that the sun can be darkened. It is by my will that darkness can envelop the world."

His voice sounded like thunder.

Low, yet mighty like it.

"Only my wrath can trigger apocalypse."

Zeus' voice lowered again, yet it resounded mightier than ever in everyone's ears.

"Only my wrath can unleash what all of you have seen get unleashed."

The cerulean eyes of the King of the Gods stared again at Poseidon.

"Tell me, brother, could you ever think that what happened may have been caused by some other than me?"

Then his gaze settled on Demeter, who was listening open-mouthed gawking at him with the most befuddled expression.

"And you, sister, tell me. Did not you hear my voice, my unmistakable angry roaring voice, in the middle of the pandemonium that enveloped the world?"

He sneered for a short instant.

"Oh sure, I can understand you, sister." His tone was harsh and sardonic. "Hard for you to understand anything at that juncture, at the moment you realized that Persephone had disappeared."

Demeter remained silent, the purest dismay in her wide eyes.

She realized. Yes, she realized for the first time. It was true! IT WAS TRUE! Such had the turmoil of her heart been that she had not noticed it, but it was true. In the middle of the pandemonium that had occurred, the voice of her brother - the thundering angry voice of Zeus - had been heard...

"...clearly."

She sensed more than hearing the voice of Poseidon. Her first words had escaped her, but that _'clearly'_ echoed inside her.

His following words resounded in the silence.

"Yes, brother, of course. I have heard it, and certainly all the others and the whole world. Your voice. Angry and roaring."

Poseidon did not appear in any way shaken or resentful by the words of his brother. He was Poseidon and he was mighty. Tremendously. And that was incontrovertible and was enough for him. And, moreover, he knew his brother well. He was the King of Gods, sure. But he had also remained a little a child, maybe because he had not experienced the stomach of Cronos. He needed to affirm and make his power and rank stand out in every way and at every turn. But they both, as well as everyone, knew that if he was the King of the Gods it was because he - Poseidon - along with the other great one of the great gods, their dark brother Hades, had consented. Useless and foolish to resent the words of an eternal child, though mighty and, at bottom, also wise, someway, as Zeus was. And, on the other hand, it could not be forgotten that it had been him, Zeus, with undoubted daring, to challenge Cronos and free his brothers and sisters from the darkness of their degenerated father's belly. Even if... well, sometimes, in Poseidon the subtle doubt arose that Zeus had done it also and above all to get mighty allies in the fight that inevitably would come after. That against the Titans. The struggle for supremacy. That to which Zeus aspired.

Poseidon let the haughty and impudent words of his brother quietly slip on his shoulders as if they were the water of his sea when this was calm and focused instead on what really mattered for him to know and that, for some reason, he sensed it was extremely important.

But all this did not prevent him from speaking with a well-perceived complacency to his brother in a tone that, of respect, had very little, not to say anything. And this just not to say blatantly that it sounded openly sarcastic.

"Make us understand, bro. Ultimately you, with your rants about your being the lord of the storms, are telling us that the cause of all the mess that occurred, it was you? That your angry voice was nothing else than your habitual way of accompanying with your golden uvula the manifestation itself in the world of your anger? And, if so, anger for what, if it is lawful to know? Because you had realized, you too, that Persephone had disappeared? That, as our sister Demeter says, someone had managed to make a mockery of her careful and rigorous surveillance and, worse still, of yours?"

Zeus did not reply. He did not react in the way that was his own, as it could have been to be expected, to the unconcealed mockery of his brother.

He assumed a serious and contrite expression, instead.

And nodded solemnly. And grimly.

And solemnly and grimly he talked.

"What an immense sea vortex would you have unleashed, brother, and how furious your angry voice would have resounded, if you had realized that the blood of your blood, that your most precious treasure, had been taken away from you? And, in addition, just in the moment, when you, for love of him, or, better said, of her, to meet her legitimate desires, have loosened your loving, but necessarily strict surveillance? Wouldn't you have risked precipitating the entire world into the maelstrom of your livid rage?"

Then he turned to Demeter, who kept looking and listening open-mouthed, trying to make sense of what she was hearing.

His harsh, hard voice rumbled in her ears.

"Yes, Demeter. I know everything. I sensed the danger hanging over Persephone even before you wised up to it. And I saw her disappear from the world. Suddenly. Inexplicably. Abducted. Yes. As you say. Stolen from your and my love, from the love of all."

Zeus turned. He raised his eyes to the sky, as if he wanted to conceal from others the vision of a despair that did not fit in those eyes.

"And..." His voice sounded broken. How never it had been possible to hear in the King of the Gods. "... and I do not know how or by whom."

He turned again.

His cerulean eyes punched through Demeter.

Burning embers, they appeared.

Burning flame, his voice sounded.

"You looked for our daughter for eight days without finding any trace of her? And what do you think I did in these eight days during which I denied everyone the hearing by everyone rightly requested?"

Zeus' voice resounded like the thunder that was his emblem.

"I have been looking for her, Demeter, everywhere, with all the power that is proper to me, with the gaze sharpness that only I possess."

His stare darted all around. Bolt of lightning of the lord of bolts of lightning.

His voice rumbled all around. Thunder of the lord of thunder.

"And I have not found of her any trace."

Zeus' voice lowered, together with his gaze. It almost became a murmur, that, though, everyone - all of them - could hear.

"Disappeared. Vanished. Under my eyes. Without being able - I, the King of Gods - to find the minimal trace."

His voice lowered more.

"Eight days, eight long days, it took me, before I found in me the strength and the will to open my palace to those who wanted to know what had happened. Eight long days, to find the strength and the will to reveal that Persephone had disappeared, that the world had been wrapped in darkness by my anger at having seen her disappear."

Zeus' voice lowered further.

"And that I, the King of Gods, am powerless to bring her back to us."

That voice seemed to get revived, a little. It seemed to regain vigour.

"Because she is alive, she is there, somewhere. She exists. I feel and know it, Demeter, like you, just like you. But…" The voice again became flat and toneless. "… just like you, I do not know where she is, who or what took her away from us. And I do not know how to reach her and how to bring her back to our love. "

A murmur. Yes, a murmur, the voice of Zeus. But deafening like a scream.

"Eight endless, empty, useless days. As many as those you have employed in your equally vain search. As many as those you have employed before deciding to come to me. For what? But to ask for help, of course."

A very low, lacerating murmur.

"A help that your brother, the King of the Gods, with all his power, is not able to give you."

Hera found it hard to disguise her astonished amazement.

Her eyes were looking fixedly at her groom from the defilated position where she was trying to appear the same way as the eyes of the others did.

Her ears, her brain, struggled to fully grasp what he was proclaiming.

To fully grasp his histrionic performance.

Her husband was ineffable!

Yes. She largely recognized in his maddish pantomime the implementation of the strategy that they, together, had planned.

But incredible, really worthy of him, of his sly and stagey astuteness, it was the way by him chosen to proceed on the road they had plotted.

He had skilfully taken advantage of the situation that had arisen. He had taken masterfully advantage even of his own doubts and his hesitation. He had even dexterously taken advantage of the unexpected and theatrical break-in onto the scene of Demeter.

The wait to which he had stolidly subjected the other gods, because he could not make up his mind to face them, had incredibly got turned in the means - in the weapon - that he had cleverly used to reveal the truth.

 _His truth._

The truth that was convenient to him.

That Persephone had disappeared - and this was true truth, truth that could not be hidden or denied. But also that, because of that, the universe had got plunged in that unheard-of storming darkness. And precisely because of his tremendous wrath for such a fact. Acknowledging, what's more - and this was really a masterpiece - his share of responsibility for this event. His surveillance had guiltily loosened - but, mind you, for his daughter's sake - and therefore it had been possible for the unknown perpetrator of Persephone's abduction to do it very more easily. And all this had made his anger mad, to such an extent as to provoke, as he said, what it had provoked.

He had made everyone believe that the reason for that unprecedented event had been his holy anger for Persephone's disappearance. Indeed, for her abduction. But not being him consenting. No. He had managed to make everyone absorb the awful reality of what had happened without compromising himself.

Indeed, on the contrary, by managing to surround himself with an aura of nobility.

Without hesitating to assert his own impotence. Great, immense thing, on the part of the one he was!

And thus avoiding slyly revealing his connivance.

And without absolutely letting slip out to whom such undisclosed connivance was reserved.

Her husband - Zeus - was... was amazing!

So incredible to deserve to be who he was!

So incredible to deserve... to deserve to be loved!

But now...

Now...

How would he continue?

How much would he follow of the plans the two of them had set up together?

Or how much would he entrust himself to his impressive art of improvisation?

The words, angry and shouted, of Demeter shook her from her reverie.

They called her back to reality

Just like everyone else.

"And what would you intend to do, o my mighty brother? O Lord of the Gods?"

The most acrimonious and violent sarcasm, the most livid rage, seethed in Demeter's rancorous words. Manifest and evident, it gushed out vehemently from them.

"Nothing? This is what you have in mind to do?"

"Demeter..."

"Tell me, Zeus! Tell me! This is all you will do? Nothing?"

Now that of Demeter was a tearing yell.

" **NOTHING?** "

" **I WILL USE MY DIVINE WRATH, WOMAN!"**

Demeter was literally hurled away by the wrathful cry of Zeus.

Everything in the palace was shaken like leaf hit by impetuous wind.

Everyone, Gods and Goddesses, staggered under that bone-crushing burst of rage.

Even Poseidon swayed.

Without getting up from the ground, Demeter laboriously raised his head to look with trembling wide open eyes and the face altered by the wrath of her brother.

Thunderbolts seemed to spill out of Zeus' clouded eyes. Thunderbolts. Like those that only his hand could hurl.

Rumble of thunder was his voice.

"It is not possible to oppose Destiny and Destiny wanted Persephone to fall prey to an unknown predatory hand. All right. So be it."

Zeus seemed to tower and to rise until to the sky.

"But Destiny will not save the owner of that hand from my wrath."

The sky darkened.

Stormy clouds thickened in it.

"Let my curse fall on him!"

The pitchy sky reverberated with Zeus' cavernous voice.

"Now and forever he, whoever or whatever he is, shall be haunted by my curse."

Zeus' voice burst out even more powerful. Intolerable.

"This is the atrocious destiny that awaits him."

Long moments passed before the sky finally cleared again.

Little by little, the black clouds disappeared.

The light returned

The calm was again.

The eyes of all the panting bystanders were fixed on Zeus.

On his mighty and now apparently quietly composed figure.

The eyes of every God and every Goddess.

Including Demeter, still on the ground.

Including Hera, there, on the sidelines.

Swirling thoughts in her mind.

So, in the end, Zeus had followed her suggestion. He had cursed the kidnapper. And there was no way to save oneself from the curse of a God. And if then that God was the King of the Gods...

In this case the accursed one had no escape.

Everyone knew it.

But nobody knew who the kidnapper really was.

And it was a kidnapper against whom even the curse of Zeus could do nothing.

It was Hades.

And neither he nor the other of the three major gods - Poseidon - could be grazed in the least, just as Zeus himself, by the vengeful wrath, by the curse of a God.

Not even if this God was Zeus in person.

The game was done.

Zeus, in his own way, had followed the plans.

It was missing the recourse to Hermes in order to look for Persephone, but it was something that could be said to be completely outdated. The cunning pantomime of her astute and opportunistic husband had made it useless.

Now...

Hera lowered her head. She prevented the sad shadow that clouded her eyes from being noticed.

Now... Persephone's Destiny rested only in her own hands, if what Zeus had said to her about Hades' intentions was true. But, regarding this, Hera was certain that her husband had not lied.

And Demeter would have to resign herself to the disappearance of her daughter. She would have Persephone with her again only if Persephone herself had wanted it.

 _Demeter couldn't but resign herself._

Hera's eyes lifted to look at Demeter.

She had got up.

She was looking at Zeus, who - silent, dour, without minding anyone, as if no one existed in that room now besides him – had turned his back to her, as well as to all the other gods and goddesses, who, little by little, were leaving, shaken and in dribs and drabs, without need for Zeus to tell them to do so.

Hera looked at Demeter's face, looked at her eyes, at her gaze at Zeus, before she too turned and slowly and ruefully and laboriously earned the exit.

Hera looked very well at that gaze.

Perhaps...

Perhaps Demeter had not in the least intention of resigning herself.

* * *

 _ **End of Chapter**_ ** _Seventeen_**

 _ **TBC**_

 **oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo**

 ** _Waiting for the evening..._**


	18. Chapter Eighteen

**For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**

 **By Asso**

 **Chapter** **Eighteen**

* * *

 _And the evening came._

* * *

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

And the evening came.

Persephone turned her gaze to the door.

* * *

And the evening came.

Demeter turned her gaze to the sun-chariot.

* * *

Persephone watched the high large ebony and stone double-leaf gate, inlaid with myriads of high reliefs that narrated the history of the world.

From the beginning until the last devastating war.

The one that had enshrined the supremacy of the current gods over the Titans.

The supremacy of Zeus. And of Poseidon.

And of Hades.

* * *

Demeter watched the glorious chariot as it was sinking away, disappearing beyond the horizon and colouring the earth with its last gold flame rays.

She observed the incomparable spectacle that had always happened.

Since the moment the world had arisen from Chaos by the force of _Gaea_ and of her son and husband Uranus, the primordial Gods, from whom everything and everyone descended.

And which continued even now.

Under the dominance of the Gods of now.

Under the dominance of Zeus. And of Poseidon.

And… of Hades.

* * *

Hades.

For the first time, Persephone realized.

While observing in anxious wait that door, with eyes different from those she had looked at it with until then, she noticed it.

On that door, among those magnificent inlaid figures, _he_ was not there.

* * *

Hades.

For the first time, Demeter realized.

While observing in anxious wait the sun-chariot sinking down, with eyes different from those she had looked at it with until then, she noticed it.

 _He_ had not been present at the consecration of Persephone. Nor at the last, infamous meeting, the one in which Zeus had basically abandoned Persephone to her fate.

* * *

Persephone lowered her head, thoughtful.

Why Hades, her captor, the absolute Lord of the realm in which she was now…

Hades, one of the three powerful Gods apportioning with one other the dominion of the world...

Why, unlike Zeus and Poseidon, well recognizable in those high reliefs, was he not depicted on that door, which narrated the history of how the world had become the lordship of the Gods of now?

Of Zeus. And of Poseidon.

And of him.

Of Hades.

* * *

Demeter lowered her head, thoughtful.

Why that name, in her head, just now? Why, the moment she was about to try to get the answer she needed, the answer about who could the captor be of her daughter, such thought appeared unwelcome and unexpected in her mind? Such name? The name of the tenebrous and hated God, the brother she would have never wanted to have, who held the current lordship of the world?

Together with Zeus. And with Poseidon.

The name of...

Hades.

* * *

Persephone perked her head up.

Enough!

Enough.

It was not... it was not the time for such questions.

That was the moment for another question.

A question of which she wanted to know the answer at any cost.

The question and... and the answer for which she... she had prepared herself all day.

That was the moment... the moment...

* * *

Demeter perked her head up.

Enough!

Enough.

It was not... it was not the time for such questions.

That was the moment for another question.

The mother of all questions. For her.

That was the moment... the moment...

* * *

Persephone looked at the door with such an intensity that her gaze seemed almost wanting to pierce it to peer into the weirdly captivating semi-darkness of the corridor beyond it.

Soon she would hear it.

As every evening.

Hade's unobtrusive knocking.

* * *

Demeter looked at the darkening horizon with such an intensity that her gaze seemed almost wanting to go beyond it, towards the fiery chariot that was being hiding beneath it.

Soon she would know.

With the nightfall.

The most opportune moment.

The moment of Helios' quiet rest.

The moment when he would have never expected to be woken up from his well-deserved rest. The moment when no one would have ever dreamed of disturbing him, after the trouble of driving his chariot through the ways of sky.

The moment when no one would have ever dreamed of thinking that anyone could do it.

As, instead, she would do.

He could see everything.

He had the answer.

And she would know.

* * *

She would know.

Persephone felt a tremor within herself.

Something...

Excitement?

 _Excitement?_

Or… or fear?

Or both?

Fear...

Fear of him? Of… of the answer he would give her?

Or... or...

Or fear of herself?

Of the... _of the excitement she felt?_

Of the fact... of the fact that she would have liked to have from him an answer...

 _An answer that made her quiver inside!_

With a forbidden... _delicious_... excitement!

 _Oh stop it! Stop it! STOP IT!_

She... she needed that answer!

She needed to know if he...

And...

 _And if she..._

IF SHE…

And she would know!

* * *

Yes! She would know.

Demeter felt a tremor within herself.

Something...

Fear?

Fear...

Fear of the answer Helios would give her?

Because that answer… that answer… could be…

Fear had become her constant companion in those terrible nine days that had passed.

Fear of what had happened, of the fate looming over her daughter.

But that...

That was a different fear.

It was fear...

 **Fear of that answer!**

Hades?

 **Hades?**

 **HADES!?**

No!

NO!

 **NO!**

That… that was an answer that made you quiver inside!

With a horrible... _awful_... terror!

 _Oh stop it! Stop it! STOP IT!_

She... she needed that answer!

She needed to know who had into his claws her adored daughter.

You can not fight what you do not know!

 _ **She needed that answer!**_

At any cost!

And she would know!

* * *

And the unobtrusive knocking made itself heard.

Persephone winced.

Then she swallowed. She composed herself.

She looked at the stole that lay far away.

She looked at herself reflected in the mirror.

At the provocative - _provocatively dark_ \- view that she offered of herself.

Her eyes, bright and...

Two deep pools of dark beauty.

Her lips. Dark of the dark purple shadow of the dark purple lipstick that painted them.

And the pure white whiteness of her bare skin.

Persephone took a deep breath.

She turned and went towards the bed.

She sat on it.

She crossed her legs, so that her dress would open and fall to show the nudity of her thighs.

She let her naked arms rest languidly on her lap.

She straightened her torso, so that her lush breasts almost leaped out from her robe.

Then she spoke.

Quietly.

But hoarse was her voice.

"Come in, my Lord."

* * *

And the splendiferous sun-chariot disappeared at the end, making the sky way free for Selene, for her enchanted silver light.

Demeter winced.

Then she swallowed. She composed herself.

She looked at the sky that darkened more and more.

She looked at the far horizon under which the sun-chariot had concealed itself.

The chariot. And its charioteer. The one who everything could see.

Who could know everything which happened under his dazzling flame.

Even, it was said, what was precluded to the eye of her mighty brother.

To the eye of Zeus.

Demeter took a deep breath.

She widened her arms at the azurine sky, in the silent quiet of the incoming night.

She lifted herself gracefully in it.

She flied, heading decidedly towards the horizon line.

She reached it.

She overstepped it.

She dived with an insuppressible sense of timorous inquietude beyond it, down, into the undefined and unknown dimension - neither day nor night - where Helios and his sister Selene, and they alone, were fully entitled to have asylum.

She floated slowly, awed, into the undefined haze of that world that was not part of the world.

She saw him finally.

Down there.

Or, maybe, up there.

Uranus only, or Gaea, and perhaps not even they, knew where, exactly.

The shining Helios.

He was sleeping.

Already.

On a bed made of diaphanous nothing.

Demeter knew she would find him like this. Helios' sleep began just after sunset and ended just before dawn. Tiring was his eternal task.

She landed slowly in the vitreous medium that surrounded her.

She looked fixedly at the handsome sleeping god.

Ancient god.

Looking young.

Yet much older than her.

Less powerful, far less powerful than her.

But holding in his hands the vivifying light of the world.

She straightened up, in all her tallness.

Then she spoke.

Quietly.

But hoarse was her voice.

"Wake up, Lord of the sun."

* * *

Slowly, gently, a leaf of the door half-opened.

Slowly it got completely open.

In its frame, he stood out.

Dark dressed.

As always.

 _And shockingly handsome, in the diaphanous whiteness of his mortally pale face._

But he did not advance, regally though respectfully, into the room, as he had always done in those evenings.

He stood motionless in the doorway, as if struck by lightning.

His otherworldly eyes wide-open in amazement.

* * *

Slowly, almost with difficulty, Helios' eyes opened.

For a moment they remained motionless and confused, as if trying to understand, to realize.

Then they opened wide. Completely.

And understanding was seen in them.

And - Demeter saw it - even fear.

Fear?

Why?

Yet it was fear.

Demeter was sure of it.

It was fear, what she saw in those gaping eyes that now stared at her.

* * *

Persephone stared at those astonished eyes.

Suddenly she felt ashamed.

What was she doing?

What was happening to her?

Showing herself like this to him, like... like a...

Persephone was unable to find appropriate terms of comparison. Pure was her soul and her heart.

And the shame overwhelmed her.

For the show of herself she was offering to him and... and for the reason for which she was doing it!

But even more because...

Because she found an immense, ineffable pleasure in realizing that in the amazement of his gaze there was also - clear, evident, powerful - admiration.

And ... - Oh father Zeus! Father Zeus! - desire!

DESIRE!

And that desire in his eyes ... - Oh father Zeus! FATHER ZEUS! - …that desire filled her with pride!

And amplified her pleasure out of all proportion.

It made it such as to overwhelm every shame sense.

Every.

EVERY.

And with a soft, languid, regal gesture of her little hand, she invited him.

"Please, my Lord." - She did not recognize her own voice. So sweet. So… so hot! So inviting! - "Come in. Do not ..." A moment. Just a moment of hesitation. - "... do not make me wait."

* * *

"What…what do you want from me, my Lady?"

And there was fear in that voice.

It trembled slightly, that voice.

For fear.

Fear...

Amazement; surprise; irritation too, why not? Definitely and totally admissible. She, Demeter, was doing something that should not have been done. Waking him, Helios, from his sacrosanct, just started off, rest. Breaking into, in such a way - unexpected and intrusive - his exclusive and secret dwelling. Whatever it was the reason, it was a gesture that defining rude sounded really as a deliberate euphemism.

But fear...

Why fear?

And fear of what? Or... maybe better to say ... of whom?

Fear because Helios knew the reason she was there for?

Because... because he knew she wanted to know from him what he knew and he was afraid of making her know what he knew?

Yes.

Demeter frowned.

Yes. It was like that.

This was the fear that crawled in Helios' eyes and voice.

But... but was therefore so terrible the... the kidnapper of her daughter?

Who? Who could be so terrible as to cause fear to Helios, the mighty lord of the sun? Who could make the eyes and the voice of the light-bearer tremble at the simple thought of having to be pushed to reveal who he was?

Who could...?

And like a maul that name stormed on Demeter again.

No!

It could not be!

It could not be true!

That name... that name...

That unmentionable, abhorrent, loathsome god, grown up in and fed of Cronos' gelid darkness...

That god she was ashamed and… and scared!... of having to call brother...

That god who by grace of Destiny had sunk into and got concealed forever in his horrid, gelid realm of death after the long, hard fight against the Titans, the war that had fully shown the chilling darkness of his black, gelid heart...

It could not...

It could not have been him!

He could not, her hideous brother, have thought to envelop her daughter's light in his darkness!

It could not be!

And... and even had he thought it, Zeus - her brother and lover for more than one only night; the mighty Zeus, Lord of heaven and earth - would have prevented it!

Never! Never would he have consented...

Consented? And now why such a term in her mind?

Zeus had not consented to anything! He had said - he ... he had asserted, to be honest! - that he had seen - or understood or guessed, or whatever Destiny wanted! - what was happening and had happened and that he had had no way to oppose the tragedy that was taking place, thing which - his words - had been at the basis of his huge outburst, that because of which storm and darkness had wrapped the world.

Indeed, Zeus had even said he had not even been able to find any trace of the kidnapper.

But who - who! - could ever be so powerful as to kidnap the daughter Zeus adored - of this Demeter was certain - without him being able to do anything about it?

Who could be so powerful to evade Zeus' search?

Who could be so powerful - and scary! - to push Helios to having fear - patent fear! - of revealing his identity?

Who?

 **WHO!**

Who could be so powerful and terrible, besides Zeus himself and Poseidon, who certainly had nothing to do with this horrible story?

Who, if not...?

The purest terror; the terror that grips; the terror that obscures; the terror that chills.

In the heart, in the soul of Demeter.

No! This no! THIS NO!

Not him! Not him, not him, not him!

Destiny could not want this! It could not allow Persephone's new light to perish, not even fully blossomed yet, in the dead gloom of...

 **OF HIM!**

Destiny could not want this!

Destiny could not decree such an atrocious iniquity!

No! NO! NO NO NO!

It could not have been him!

It was not to be!

It was not possible... it hadn't to be possible that...

Demeter's gaze was vitreous as she addressed Helios.

Vitreous, her voice.

"Helios, tell me. Has it been ..."

It trembled, that feeble voice. Perceptibly.

"...Hades? '"

* * *

"Persephone..."

And there was something, in that voice.

Something...

It trembled slightly, that voice.

As much as this could be incredible, it trembled. Perceptibly.

And wasn't able to go further.

Persephone felt a shudder, a shiver, making his way inside her.

What was she doing?

What was happening to her?

Why, how could it be possible for her to find herself saying - and with that voice, that voice so warm and allusive! With that attitude, that attitude so provocative and inviting! - "Why do not you come in, my Lord? Why do not you come to me? Do not you find me to your liking?"

"Persephone..." There was amazement in his uncertain voice. "Your... your dress..."

Persephone looked intently at him.

Something was happening inside her that she would never have thought could happen.

 **Something she liked!**

Something that led her to speak in a calm and quiet voice.

"It's one of the clothes you wanted me to wear, different, every night. Why do you find it strange I show up myself to you dressed with one of them? With the last one you gave me? The most beautiful, if I must tell the truth."

Persephone was sure of it. Hades had swallowed. Visibly.

He advanced a step. Then another.

With uncertainly and clumsy doing.

The door closed behind him with an unexpected thud and he jumped at the noise.

He! Hades! He who harboured no sort of fear!

He took another step forward and then, finally - his pale face even paler, if possible - he managed to speak.

"It's... it's true, Persephone. You wear one of the clothes I made for you prepare on these evenings. But never have you shown yourself to me like this. You've always concealed yourself under that..."

"Under that stole, I know." Persephone got up slowly. The robe fell down around her, but she moved, twirled gracefully on herself. And the revealing dress twirled together with her. And it rose. And disclosed tantalizingly her beauty, for the little it wasn't in display already.

Then she stopped and looked at Hades with a sprightly look. Like her voice.

"But not tonight."

And her voice became serious. Like her gaze.

"Tonight, my Lord, I wanted to show me to you as you want me to show me to you."

Hades swallowed again.

"Persephone..."

Persephone approached him.

Wiggling prettily her hips.

Magnificent and splendid.

"Is not this what you wanted, my Lord? Tell me, did not you want me to be like that for you?"

"P... Persephone..."

"Are not you glad? Do not you appreciate I've in addition made it so to make my aspect more consonant with you? With what you appear and are? Do not you find be to your liking the dark purple colour of my lips? And the icy whiteness of my skin? Do not you cherish the scent of the essences I have made use of, just in order to be liked by you?"

She came closer even more.

Her aroma, the fragrance of her skin, at all perceptible under the aura of the soft and exciting perfume veiling it, enveloped him. Intoxicating.

"Do not you like me this way, my Lord?"

"Persephone!"

She was on him. Her beautiful face turned upwards, towards his.

Her warm body against his.

"Why do you hesitate, my Lord? I surrender to your will, do not you see? Take what you want."

And Hades retreated. Abruptly. And he turned around.

Stiff and immovable, he stayed.

Without speaking.

With his back turned to Persephone.

With his arms stretched along his hips.

With his hands clenched in fists.

Livid, in the strength of their close.

Persephone remained motionless, confused and puzzled.

She stood silent, without understanding, until finally she made up her mind to speak.

A whisper of unquiet incomprehension.

"My Lord..."

And he continued to remain motionless, his hands still clenched in fists. Without speaking.

"Hades ..." It was an uncertain and confused murmur, her low voice.

"But do you want me?"

Persephone jumped at the violent strength of his voice.

He turned around.

His eyes of ice and fire stared at her with shattering force.

Those eyes pierced her.

Like his voice. An otherworldly whisper.

"Do you really want my darkness to penetrate inside you?"

Persephone was silent for quite a few moments, her confused gaze fixed in his flame eyes.

Then she snapped.

Vehemently.

"And you, my Lord? Are you ready to be wrapped by my light?"

Those words burst loudly in the motionless air of the great room.

They also broke into Persephone's mind.

Her eyes widened.

Her breathing became laboured.

She realized.

Suddenly and with terror, she realized.

But... but what was she doing? What was she saying?

That one was Hades! HADES!

He... he could not be challenged with impunity!

It was inconceivable to address him the way she had done, with words like those she had told him!

Much as could it be true and real that he wanted her and much as had he proved he had respect for her, one couldn't address him that way!

Persephone drew back abruptly and quickly, her hands on her mouth, as if to prevent, vainly and too late, those words, that had already come out from her lips, from hovering free; her wide open and trembling eyes locked on the wide open and amazed eyes of him.

And then it happened.

Those eyes - those tremendous eyes of him - softened. They smiled.

Really.

Like his mouth.

Like his voice.

"I now understand fully why Destiny has chosen you to be my woman."

But those words triggered Persephone's reaction again.

Her impetus.

Which did not allow restrictions.

Her eyes flashed as she spoke.

Her words flashed.

"Your woman? I'm not your woman!"

"What?"

"Your captive! That's what I am! Certainly, not your woman!"

"But... but if you..." Could it ever be possible? Hades... Hades who stammered? "... but if you... you... a moment ago ..."

"And you refused me!"

Hades recoiled, struck deep down, as if physically hit, unable to find words.

He tried.

"No, I did not say that! I... I just wanted to make sure you really wanted..."

"Ah, you wanted certainty, my great Lord? And for this you've humiliated me?"

"I have...?"

"Yes, you did it!"

"But... but Persephone!"

Persephone put her hands on her hips and looked at Hades as if she wanted to incinerate him.

And he shrank back again.

And he raised his arms on his face.

As if wanting to protect himself.

And it is not a simple way of saying, because Persephone's words - their vehemence, their fury - could really hurt.

"I spent my days and nights alone, waiting for a sign from you. A nod, anything, good or bad it were. But you did not do anything. You just kept me a silent company during my dinners and let me find those skimpy clothes, to let me know that you wanted me. And _**how** _ you wanted me! "

 _"_ Persephone! I..."

"And the moment I decided to comply with your wishes and to allow you ..."

"Allow me?"

"...to show me your true intentions ..."

"My true intentions? But I've already... "

"...you have wrapped yourself in your mantle of superior greatness and you have questioned _**my**_ intentions!"

Hades was certainly not used to feel slip away from his hands the control of the situation. It was him the one who always had control!

But now he felt that he had lost control, that control was in the hands ... but yes! ... in the hands of the woman who was supposed to be a sweet and tender girl who could have anything except claws!

Wrath and irritation!

Wrath, irritation and annoyance!

Inside him!

A gesture... a simple rising up of his eyebrow... and that daring and impudent girl would be reduced to ashes.

But he did not do anything like that.

He did not even think about it.

His wrath and irritation and annoyance got trivially translated into an angry and irritated and annoyed protest. And not even too convinced, in truth. And, if we really have to say it all, even with the unpleasant feeling of appearing rather silly.

"It's me the one who was supposed to be the seducer, not you!"

"Ah, nice seducer, in truth! Nothing but an unsubstantial presence at dinner time! A seducer whose only moves have been those of making me understand, by means of those skimpy clothes, that you would have liked me to show myself more or less naked to you! To do what, however, I do not know! You've never moved a finger to induce me to get rid of that stole! You've never even tried to prompt me to do it! And you knew – you knew! - I wore those clothes under the stole!"

Is it possible that a God can be so confused that he does not know what he is saying? And is it possible that this God could be Hades?

Can a woman - a girl, a maiden - be able to make such a thing happen?

Was it really Hades - the tremendous, obscure Hades - the one who responded in that flimsy way to the angry, irritating words of Persephone?

Flimsy.

But sincere.

And sincerity pays off.

Not always.

Ma sometimes it does.

"Yes, I knew it! But I..."

And Hades looked down.

He could not let be it put in display. The ashamed frustration he knew that was in them.

"...I did not know what to do, Persephone."

Persephone was dumbfounded. Her anger vanished instantly.

There was something - in the words, in the attitude of Hades - digging in, deep in her heart.

She approached him again.

She did something unheard of.

She took his face in her hands and held it up.

Gently.

So that she could see his eyes.

And she saw them.

Beautiful and distressed.

"Hades ..." The sweetest of whispers. "... what do you mean?"

Hades was silent for long moments.

With his face…

 _Oh his face, held, softly, between the hands of a woman!_

 _Of_ _ **that**_ _woman!_

 _Of that invaluable, unrivalled, marvellous maiden!_

 _He..._

 _He..._

 _He - yes! - he would remain silent forever, if he could have had his face held forever so, between those small, gentle, delicate hands._

 _But_ _..._

But he had to answer.

He had to say something.

And he said it, finally.

While his cold, diaphanous hands went to rest almost by their own will on those of Persephone, to feel, to taste - with hesitation, yes. And with embarrassment - their sweet warmth.

While his eyes were getting flooded with something - the reverberation of a feeling that he did not know - and with that feeling, never felt before, they were staring at Persephone.

At her wonderful bright eyes that gazed anxious at him. On hold.

"Persephone, I am a violent God. I was born in violence and on violence I was fed. I am the most violent of the Gods. I possess the violence of death. Blind violence. Violence without escape."

Grave were Hades' words.

Grave and powerful.

Persephone felt as if being d by them, by their strength, by their power.

By their truth.

And even more because she felt, understood, realized that he, Hades, was opening himself to her. That he was revealing to her things about himself... things that no one else knew!

And that she - SHE! - instead would know!

She! Persephone!

And only her.

She did not move, her eyes fixed on his. She gave no sign, her hands under his and on his cool face.

She held her breath.

Not one of his words - not a single one! - had to elude her!

"I was born while dying, Persephone, swallowed in the abyss of my father's stomach, the same fate that touched my sisters and my brothers, except Zeus, your father. But I died much more than my sisters and my brethren. I was for a long time wrapped up in the cold and evil flow of my father's deaf and blind violence, much more than it touched in fortune to my siblings. I sucked the filthy sap of his violence as if it were the milk of the mother I had not known. My father's dark violence marked me forever. My brothers and my sisters lay in his stomach, far from his black heart. I was enveloped in his darkness and that darkness, that violence, has enwrapped me forever. I was born while dying..."

A sigh. Was it a sigh, that one?

"... and death was my destiny."

Was...

No! Impossible!

...Was a sob?

Persephone felt like her heart as caught in a vise.

Hades... the dark, tremendous Hades... had known nothing but darkness and violence.

And death.

From the moment of his birth.

And even more, in a far more bloodcurdling way, than his brothers and sisters.

That was why...

That was why he...

"That's why I'm Hades, Persephone."

Sharp, pointed stones... arrows that hurt... his bitter words.

"I, and I alone, can be who I am. The…"

How were cold, his hands over hers!

"… the dead King of the dead."

How doleful were, those timeless eyes in which it was impossible not to get lost.

"And for whom I am, Persephone ..."

His hands detached themselves from hers, with difficulty.

With difficulty he subtracted his face from her small, delicate hands.

With difficulty he turned his gaze away from hers, as he talked.

With difficulty

With painful bitterness.

"... for whom I'm, what do you want it can be, a miserable kidnapping? The abduction of an innocent and naive maiden like the one it's you?"

Hades turned around. He turned his back to Persephone.

He could not look at her while he was saying what he was saying.

"Nothing, Persephone, just nothing, in the sea of blind violence of my life of death. A kidnapping ..." His bitter sarcastic sneer let itself be heard. "... more than justified, as I told you and explained."

Then his voice became as grave as a grave.

"But still a kidnapping."

More than a grave.

"And I do not have the olympic indifference in regard to the violence that the other Gods follow with so cheer nonchalance. I do not have their self-assurance in regard to what is lawful to the Gods. Mine is an uncertain world. There are no certainties in it. Except that of death."

Hades turned around towards Persephone. He stared at her with a dead look.

"Zeus, your father, Persephone, would not have hesitated. And you know it. He would have made be his own, without thinking twice, what he had taken. Just as all the other Gods. All. But not me. "

Persephone felt the beating of her heart.

She physically perceived it.

A thing supposed not having to happen.

"I am forever condemned to live in the impartial violence of death. Persephone. A violence without hope, but not unjust."

Persephone's heartbeat grew almost violent in her chest.

Almost unbearable.

"I had promised to Zeus and, above all, to myself, that I would have made you mine only if you had wanted to. The kidnapping was the means - violent, of the violence my life is soaked with - which would have allowed me to bring you to me, by snatching you from the blind and violent - Yes. Violent. - protection of your mother. But…"

And Hades turned again. Again he turned his back to Persephone.

And a desperate whisper was his voice.

"... but I did not know - I do not know - what to do. I... I do not know how to woo a woman. I do not know how to make me loved. I…"

Persephone clearly heard - and felt strongly deep down herself - his mournful sigh.

"... I do not know love."

* * *

"I did not see anything, my Lady! **I DID NOT SEE ANYTHING!"**

It was enough.

There was no need for anything else.

Those words were enough.

It was enough the blind terror vibrating in that voice.

Hades.

Him.

It had been him!

Her daughter, her sweet, helpless daughter... was in the hands… in the hands…

…of Hades!

 **OF HADES!**

She had to... she had to free her!

She had to find the way!

Nine days.

NINE DAYS!

So many!

But... but maybe not too many.

Maybe...

Maybe it was not too late.

MAYBE IT WAS NOT TOO LATE!

If she...

If she had found the way, maybe...

 **MAYBE IT WAS NOT TOO LATE!**

* * *

And, suddenly, at those melancholy words - at that wistful lament - Persephone understood everything.

She understood why that dark and gloomy God had entered her mind and inside... inside her heart since the day of her deification, even though she had never seen him.

She understood why she had headed - unconsciously, but perhaps not so much - towards the dark forest that marked the thin border between his world and the one... the one ... yes, the one that had been... HAD BEEN!... her world, the day when she had finally been able to enjoy a little of welcome solitude. Of freedom.

She understood why she had acquiesced to be brought by him into his dark world.

She understood why she had felt so strangely serene - happy? Yes, happy! - in that obscure world, though so far from and foreign to the light of her world, of the world that had been hers until... until her abduction. The most relished of abductions.

She understood what would really be the new light - the Spring - of which she was the goddess and bearer. She understood what it was. She understood that it was the light that would light up his world for the first time. His world. And hers. Her new world.

And him.

HIM!

She understood that it was him the one who would teach her the true substance of her deity, who would teach her how to make her light shine everywhere. The new light of Spring. There, in his Realm, as well as in his heart. And, from there, everywhere. In the Realm of the supernal world, in the Realm of the oceans and in any other Realm that could exist.

She understood why Destiny had chosen her.

She understood the tremendous and stupendous task that Destiny had assigned to her.

And she was grateful to Destiny.

She was grateful to Destiny for granting her the gift of being the one who would teach him love.

She was grateful to Destiny for granting her the gift of learning love from him.

Persephone understood.

She understood everything.

Everything.

She understood why she had prepared herself like that, for that encounter with him, that evening.

She understood why she had done it.

She understood - and she was happy of that - the incomprehensible licentious effrontery she had done it with.

She understood.

She understood everything.

And she understood - perfectly, lucidly - what she should do now.

"Hades..."

It was a call. An appeal. An invitation.

Marvellously sweet.

Something that resounded, suave, impossible to be ignored, in the ears, in the mind, in the soul of him.

Something that forced him to turn around, his heart in turmoil.

To see, to bask in the vision of her, who - slowly, smiling with a smile that was neither of his world, nor of her world, nor of any other world - backed away little by little, until to touch, with her breath-taking legs, the high bed; who sat on it, discovering her superbly shapely thighs with innocent shamelessness, her magnificent and erect breasts blossoming flippant from the wide and deep neckline; who raised to him her perfect visage, framed as a dazzling white diamond by the wild mass of her tawny hair, looking at him with an expression he would never forget.

To hear, as in a dream that he would never have dreamed he could dream, her soft, warm voice.

"Hades, I do not know love either."

A voice that was a dream.

"Let's learn together."

A stupendous reality.

"Let's learn the one from the other."

A dream reality.

"Take me, Hades."

Her voice. Her wonderfully husky voice.

And her eyes. Her gorgeous eyes. Which shone, which sparkled.

Which spoke.

Just as her arms. Which rose up, which thrust open wide to him.

Just as her turgid mouth.

Just as her succulent lips.

That mouth, those lips that called him, that invited him.

Which opened up to speak softly.

"Love me."

* * *

 **End** _ **of Chapter Eighteen**_

 _ **TBC**_

 **oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo**

 _The evening came._

 _And the night._

 _And its spell._


	19. Chapter Nineeten

**For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**

 **By Asso**

 **Chapter Nineeten**

* * *

 _ **A dutiful premise.**_

 _ **My absence was long.**_

 _ **Very long.**_

 _ **I apologize.**_

 _ **But believe me, I could not do otherwise.**_

 _ **Anyway, I'm here again.**_

 _ **And I earnestly hope that my beloved readers have not forgotten me.**_

 _ **And that they can still get pleasure from this story.**_

 **Here's the new chapter.**

* * *

 _And after the evening..._

 _The night._

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

"Your curse is useless, Zeus."

Low and calm, yet heavy with some sort of dull, veiled, livid anger, the voice resounded under the high vaults of the Olympian abode.

Zeus startled.

Just so.

He startled.

His eyes ran to his wife's.

He saw them wide open and uncertain.

As he knew his too for sure appeared.

His gaze followed Hera's.

He stood up slowly and slowly turned around.

To look at where his wife's eyes were fixedly watching.

He assumed the most imperious of poses.

He raised his mighty arm.

Mighty, though quiet, was his voice.

"What do you mean, Demeter?"

And yet he was not sure that his voice was able to conceal the anxiety that had caught him.

The words of Demeter, who silently and inadvertently had appeared in his palace without him... without him noticing her arrival...

Those words were disturbing.

What did they mean?

Did they mean that she had no confidence in his curse?

This would have been extremely serious in itself, but it would have been even more serious if they had meant that...

That she knew!

That she knew who the kidnapper of Persephone was!

One... one on whom his curse nothing could.

Or... or worse...

No! This was not possible!

Demeter could not possibly know that he was conniving with the kidnapper!

This was not possible!

It could not be!

Zeus managed to mask his disquiet, disguising it with bored impatience.

He arched his shaggy eyebrow.

He pointed his finger at Demeter.

"Speak, woman. Zeus is waiting. Do not abuse his patience."

Demeter remained motionless and silent for a few moments.

It seemed that his brother's words had not even touched her.

Zeus scrutinized her, dissembling.

His anxiety grew.

She looked like a sore statue.

But dignified and proud.

Resolute.

She was no longer unkempt.

Her dress was in perfect order.

Her gaze was firm.

The statue came alive.

The beautiful and proud head turned around.

The bare and tapered arm rose up.

It beckoned.

In one with the head.

"Come forward."

Zeus' head snapped.

His eyes darted toward the two huge marble columns that somehow bordered the threshold of his palace.

A figure moved slowly among them, a shadow in the shadow of the night.

It hesitated between the columns.

Then it advanced slowly.

With hesitant step.

As if it were not fully able to realize what world it was in.

And it was so.

It was night.

That was not its world.

That was Selene's world.

Different and bright was its world.

The light from the torches illuminated the figure.

It revealed it.

At a safe distance from Zeus, Helios stood still.

* * *

It was night.

The night of the ninth day.

The ninth day in _his_ Kingdom.

Tomorrow it would have been the tenth day.

And the dawn of that day would have been the dawn of a different day.

As different - quite different - it had been that night.

Persephone moved slowly.

She did not want to lose the sweet hug of his arm.

But she wanted to see him.

She wanted to look at his face.

Slowly she rolled over cautiously on the bed, in the crook of his arm.

There he was.

Laid on the pillow.

His head.

His diaphanous face.

Beardless.

Framed by that hair, so thin and at once strong. Young. And yet white by a time without time.

He was sleeping.

The pale eyelids hid his otherworldly gaze.

He was asleep.

She did not.

She could not.

She watched him.

She looked at that cerulean and timeless face.

At those very fine and ethereal features.

He was...

He was a god different from any other god.

But not less beautiful.

Indeed...

Indeed more beautiful.

Much, much more beautiful!

And...

And he was hers!

Persephone turned over back on the bed with a long sigh.

Her gaze wandered over the distant ceiling of the room, obscurely resplendent with myriads of fine lights.

Yes.

He was hers.

And she...

She was his!

She closed her eyes, relishing the memories.

The emotions.

The sensations.

He had played on her skin.

His light fingers had explored her.

His strong, sure hands had rummaged her.

His lips had claimed her.

His mouth had devoured her.

And his puissance had subjugated her.

His masculine vigour had invaded her.

She had shouted, happy and euphoric - intoxicated - at that welcome invasion.

Her back had got arched to welcome the tide of his strength.

Her head had snapped back in the ecstasy of her surrender.

Her mouth had cried out his name, as his liquid essence invaded her, spread inside her.

Her lips had murmured it, repeatedly, while her body relaxed slowly, among the last after-shocks of unutterable bliss.

While her arms were holding his head strict against her naked breast.

While her mouth was lost in the soft cloud of his hair.

It had not been painless.

She had never welcomed anyone inside her.

And he...

Persephone's eyes widened in ecstasy at that thought.

He...

She had understood it.

With her body.

With her mind.

With her heart.

He had never taken possession of a woman.

The tremendous, feared, vituperated Hades...

The mighty lord of nothingness...

The ancient, powerful...

Neglected...

Ostracized...

 _Hideous!_

 _ **Monstrous!**_

Hades...

 _The antithesis itself of love!_

Had learned love from her and with her.

Like her from him and with him.

No. It had not been painless.

But his delicacy had made the pain sweetness.

The terrible Hades had made of her pain pure joy.

Elation.

 _Happiness._

And no one else - God or demigod or human - would have been able to do it.

She was...

She was happy!

 _ **Happy to be his!**_

* * *

Hera stood up, her gaze fixed on Helios.

So she had not been mistaken.

Demeter had not resigned herself at all.

And she had found the way to know.

There was someone whose eyes nothing could escape, who everything could see.

Everything.

Even the kidnapping of Persephone.

Also - perhaps - her kidnapper.

An ancient God.

Helios.

And Helios was there, now.

Despite it being night, he was there.

Rare thing.

Which only happened on great occasions.

But that was not a night of great occasions.

Yet he was there.

And he was uncomfortable.

To say the least.

Enormously.

It was visible.

As if he were forced to do something he would never have wanted to do.

As for example...

Revealing to Zeus the name of the kidnapper of Persephone!

An unease - perhaps, even more, a fear, if not terror - more than understandable, if you thought about who the kidnapper was.

He was not a kidnapper to challenge with impunity!

But not even Demeter could be challenged with impunity.

She was one of the major goddesses.

And how can you do to counteract the orders of such a goddess, if you are not at least equal to her?

It was not possible.

So Helios was there.

Because he knew.

And Demeter had rightly thought he could know.

And she had forced him to say what he knew.

Hera's eyes ran to his spouse.

She realized perfectly.

Behind his marble and determined face, behind his frowned lashes, his concern was clear and obvious to her.

Things were taking an unpleasant turn.

What would have happened?

Would her spouse have been able to control a situation that could also be a prelude to the unveiling of his deception?

Eh sure.

Because Demeter was not a fool at all and the question that certainly would have arisen, now, was why ever Zeus...

Why ever Zeus, who had done so much, he said, to find his beloved Persephone and his kidnapper and who had felt so broken and powerless and angry for not succeeding...

Why ever hadn't he thought of doing what Demeter had planned to do?

Namely to consult the one who, since the sun had begun its perennial course in the celestial vault, had been the conductor of the solar chariot and, for this reason, able to see everything that under the light of the sun happened?

Unless...

Unless, ultimately, he - Zeus - did not really want to know because... because he already knew.

And in this case... in this case...

Could it be that Demeter's composed and confident attitude - but also hard, you could see it, even if clearly doleful - was a spy that she had fully realized that that of Zeus had merely been charade? A sham? A turbid farce?

And in case it was so...

Hera sat down.

She certainly would not betray her spouse and lord.

And, on the other hand, she understood very well the reasons that had pushed him to act in the way he had done.

And she knew very well how much this had had to cost him.

Oh yeah.

Because, as to his affection for Persephone, she did not nourish the least doubt.

But she could not help but feel a subtle, inscrutable pleasure, in perceiving - palpable - the embarrassment, the worry of that damn scoundrel, that arrant liar of her husband.

And, also, she was curious.

She knew how tortuous his cunning was.

His mind was vivid and prompt.

How would he muddle through?

His strength and power, his regal superiority would not have been enough to him.

But the arrows in the quiver of his guile were at least as many as the bolts of lightning he could launch by his hand.

Hera crossed her legs, a thin smile on her beautiful face.

It boded to be a superb show.

* * *

 ** _End_** ** _of Chapter Nineteen_**

 ** _TBC_**

 **oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo**

 _The night._

 _The night of revelations._


	20. Chapter Twenty

**For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**

 **By Asso**

 **Chapter Twenty**

* * *

 _For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?_

 _ **For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**_

 _ **FOR WHO COULD EVER LEARN TO LOVE THE ONE WHO DOESN'T KNOW LOVE?**_

 _But…_

 _But love doesn't know rules._

* * *

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

"Do not you sleep, my floret?"

Persephone startled on the bed.

And, if she had been capable of thinking lucidly at that moment, she wouldn't be able to tell if her startle were due more to hearing herself be called a floret by him or to the surprise of simply being called by him, so immersed in sleep as he appeared to be.

But Persephone recovered immediately.

She rolled into his arms and looked at him from below up, with such innocent eyes that more they couldn't have been.

"Neither do you, it seems to me, my Lord." Her blue-green eyes winked maliciously. "Who knows why."

And those bright eyes of hers laughed, as playful as her voice.

And Hades laughed.

Yes.

He too.

He laughed heartily.

And playful, cheerful, was his voice as well.

"No, my floret. I too can't sleep." His eyes, darker than night, sparkled like unearthly gems. "Who knows why, eh, my graceful floret?"

Suddenly, Persephone's expression changed. It became serious, grave even, as well as her gaze.

Abruptly, she extricated herself from his embrace and rose to sit on the bed.

She rolled over and put herself astride him.

The sheet that previously covered her, in a total mess on the thalamus.

Her splendid nakedness flourishing in all its glory.

She rested her small hands on his chest.

Her long, tawny hair fell around her.

Her glistening eyes looked at him, as shining as stars.

"Tell me about you, my Lord. Narrate me about you." Persephone's gaze got fixed intensely into the eyes of him. "I want to know everything about you, my Lord. I want to know everything about the Lord of my heart".

Imperceptible.

But not so much.

A hiss. Low.

From Hades' pale mouth.

A hiss of surprise.

Of incredulous pleasure.

Then he recomposed himself.

His face regained its usual marble appearance.

At least... enough. He hoped.

He returned Persephone's gaze; his thin, arched eyebrows frowning.

"Everything, Persephone? Really everything?"

"Yes, everything, my Lord. Everything. Everything!"

"Persephone..." Hades took the small hands that were leaning on his chest in his. "... There is nothing that is worth knowing about me that you, like everyone else, do not know already. And certainly nothing good. Nothing good there's in my life, as well as in me."

"It is not true! It is not true my Lord! You are good! You are good and… and beautiful! You are the most beautiful thing that could happen to me! You are beautiful outside and... and inside! "

"Persephone, what are you ever saying?"

"The truth, my Lord!"

"Persephone..."

Persephone freed her little hands from his with an abrupt gesture. She looked at him with blazing eyes.

"You told me, my Lord, that I would have found the answers to my questions if I had followed you."

Hades moved uncomfortable. Or, perhaps, embarrassed.

"Yes, actually I ..."

"And you were right, my Lord. You were right!"

"I was...?"

"Yes! I found the answers! I know why I couldn't do nothing but thinking of you, without me even knowing you - frightened and yet fascinated by you, by what I believed to know of you - the night of my consecration!"

Hades' eyes widened. "You couldn't do nothing but thinking of me?"

Persephone did not even care of his words. Of his amazement.

"I know now why my steps led me to the dark forest that marks the border between your world and the world... the world that was - WAS! - mine! I know now why I - and only I - could see you, though protected by the helmet that makes you invisible to all the others! I know... "

Persephone fell silent.

Her gaze seemed to get lost in distant horizons.

Almost with difficulty, she resumed talking, as her eyes, deeper than sea, returned staring at him.

With a dreamy voice.

"I know now why I followed you."

Her eyes, gleaming like stars, stared at him brightly.

She lowered down on him.

She lay on him.

Low and hoarse were the words that her lips whispered, as caressing his neck.

"I followed you because I wanted to be yours".

Persephone stopped talking. A brief moment. Then she spoke again. In a very, very soft and low voice.

"And you have fulfilled my recondite desire, my Lord. You have made me yours."

For a few moments there was silence.

Hades was silent. Immersed in his astonishment, as well as his hands were immersed in the soft mass of her shiny hair.

Then, finally, he managed to speak.

And it did not sound like the voice of Hades, the King of Underworld.

It was a voice remorseful voice.

Of guilt.

And, at the same time, of timid - _of unsaid_ \- quest for confirmation.

"Persephone, I kidnapped you."

Persephone did not change position. She did not move. Did not even sigh.

"Yes, you've done it, my Lord."

Hades held his breath.

He searched for enough voice to say something in answer.

But he could not.

Persephone gave him no time.

"But yours was a needless act, my Lord. I belonged to you already."

What thoughts passed into that rapid yet eternal instant in the mind of the dark Lord of Nothing?

Can someone think of being able to grasp the astonished amazement that, at those words, those words that substantially told him he was loved - and by the most splendid of the females! - couldn't but permeate the mind of the one who could not even conceive love essence?

 _ **Of the one who doesn't know love?**_

* * *

"For all my thunderbolts! Helios! You! Just you! In the middle of the night! A thing rather unusual, to say the least! Really serious the reasons have to be that led you to introduce yourself to me - to your supreme Lord - in spite of every established practice."

Hera narrowed her eyes.

She understood that scoundrel of her husband more than anyone else could do.

He was...

He was really a scoundrel!

He...

He was intimidating Helios!

He was substantially telling him he had to be very careful about what he would say.

 _About what he would say to his supreme lord!_

Hera sighed.

Damn! Beyond the good and the bad, beyond all, her husband was really a damn - very clever! Very cunning! - scoundrel!

And she could not help but admire - and love! - him for this too!

He was...

He was the man - the God! - who was for her!

Hera shook her head, getting rid of her thoughts.

She had to focus on what was happening in front of her.

* * *

 _Oh Destiny! Destiny! Do not mock me! Do not trick me! Do not fool me! Tell me it's true! Tell me that I really found love! That I understood what really it is! And that I really love! And that really -_ _ **really!**_ _\- my love is reciprocated!_

Formless, elusive, unseizable, almost. Yet these ones were the thoughts that swirled in the King of Underworld's mind.

His eyes got shut, in desperate yearning; as his face plunged into the soft mass of Persephone' soft hair; as his arms embraced the soft flesh that never he would have thought that he could hug; that he could possess.

 _Give me a sign, Destiny! Give me a tangible sign that really - really! – I discovered love! That I found it! After so many gray eons of gray existence! And… and that this love is reciprocated by..._

 _BY HER!_

"I love you, Hades."

Her words!

The sign!

The sign of Destiny!

Hades' eyes snapped open.

He raised his face from her soft, fragrant hair.

He gently - shyly, almost. Nervously - lifted her chin up so that her face could be turned to him, so that she could look at him.

He watched her.

Intensely.

Just as intense it was her gaze.

The look she struck him with.

Which accompanied her words. More intense, if possible, than her stare.

The same words as before

But deliberately, purposely, intentionally, loaded with a mighty force.

With a puissant significance.

Deliberately, purposely, intentionally expressed.

" **I love you, Hades.** "

* * *

"Tell me, Helios. Tell me, my friend. What do you have to tell me so important to push you to introduce you to me - to the Lord of everything and everyone - in the middle of the night? In the middle of a time that does not belong to you?"

A scoundrel!

A damned, veritable - _wonderful_ \- rascal!

But how was it possible that she, Hera - the great Hera - could feel so attracted to that damned husband of hers?

Yet it was so!

And...

Hera clouded over for a moment.

And not just her, this was certain.

Even...

Even Demeter - damn it to her too! - had yielded to the crafty lure of that damned! That same Demeter who had now brought Helios in front of Zeus, so that he could reveal what he - evidently - knew.

And that Zeus did not want to make him say.

Hera smiled.

Sadly.

But also slyly.

Voluptuously, almost.

Enough!

She did not have to let herself be distracted.

It was a show that had to be tasted in all its respects.

* * *

"I was born to love you."

 _Persephone's words were gems._

 _Sparkling gems._

 _Falling, sweet and mighty, from her velvety mouth._

 _One behind the other._

 _To form a precious waterfall._

 _Sparkling._

 _Dazzling._

 _Which clouded everything with its splendour._

 _Every lucid thought that Hades could conceive._

"And I will always love you."

 _Gems. Invaluable._

 _More precious than any gem of his Kingdom._

"Whatever happens, I will always love you. Even in case you do not want me anymore, in case you get tired of me, in case you want to get rid of me after making me yours, I will love you. "

 _Gems. More precious than diamonds and warmer than the sun._

"Because I am yours, my Lord. From the moment I was born and even before. And for all eternity."

 _Words - gems - brighter than the brightest stars._

"You've kidnapped something that already was yours, my Lord. You've kidnapped my heart. My heart as well as all of me."

 _Words so bright as to make the shining stars pale._

"This is what Destiny has decreed for me. I know it now. I fully understand it now. And I accept it with joy. I welcome happy my destiny."

Persephone raised her torso.

She looked down straight at that diaphanous face staring at her with those dark eyes of him open wide.

"The destiny that my destiny it's you."

Her voice was no longer a whisper.

It rumbled loudly under the high vaults.

It re-echoed, bouncing all along them.

" **You, Hades. My Lord and my love**."

* * *

 _ **End of Chapter Twenty**_

 _ **TBC**_

 **oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo**

 _No._

 _Love doesn't know rules._


	21. Chapter 21

**For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**

 **By Asso**

 **Chapter Twenty One**

* * *

 _The future._

* * *

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Demeter stepped forward.

She looked at Zeus with a quiet, hard look.

Her voice rose.

And it wasn't wavering at all.

"Helios wants to tell you, o Supreme" - Zeus frowned abruptly. Was there by chance a subtle note of lashing mockery, in that way of calling him? Zeus? The biggest of Gods? - "that he knows who kidnapped Persephone."

Demeter's eyes narrowed. They looked like cracks from which a sinister light filtered.

Her voice sounded soft.

Yet sharp.

"He can put you in a position to punish the kidnapper from the height of your power."

Demeter's voice rose again, stronger.

It grew very louder.

"And to force him to return my daughter - _our_ daughter - to ..." - The voice hesitated a moment. A very rapid moment. - "... to your and my affection."

Zeus managed to smooth his face in a flash.

He mantled his eyes with something... something...

Hera watched him. Despite everything, in real admiration.

There was surprise, in that look of him.

And hope, even. Almost… almost timidly shown.

And suspicion. _Timorous_ suspicion.

As if he feared he could be deluded.

And all this while she knew very well that he was in difficulty.

Because he - like her - knew very well that Helios really could know.

But never would he - like her - have believed that Demeter could think of resorting to him - to Helios - extracting him from his own world to bring him into _their_ world.

Never would he - like her - have believed that Demeter could think that he, Zeus, - in his infinite wisdom - could have neglected in his quest to turn to the only God to whose eyes nothing of what happened during the day could escape.

Helios.

Who, now, was there.

To reveal...

 _To reveal..._

"So reveal me, my friend." Zeus' voice was low. And yet it was a thunder. A menacing thunder. "If you know, reveal."

The voice became lower.

A remote, scary rumble of thunder.

While Zeus' eyes seemed to get blurring with gray clouds.

"If you know, let me know from whom I must take Persephone away to bring her back to us."

A low, frightening, threatening rumble of thunder, the voice of Zeus.

"If you know, tell me whom I must punish."

Zeus' voice rose. It became a loud, stormy, thunderous noise.

And his eyes blazed.

"But you must be sure of what you say, Helios."

And there was some kind of threat in that voice.

Ed Hera knew why.

It was the last bastion.

Her husband was warning Helios.

Surreptitiously, he was cautioning him against revealing what he knew.

Because if Helios had revealed it, he - her august husband and lord - would have to come out into the open.

He would have to accept to clash with his brother.

With Hades.

Would have to accept to unleash the most terrible of wars.

A war with a completely uncertain outcome.

Because the curse that he had launched on the obscure abductor of Persephone nothing could against the darkest of the three Big Brothers. There was no curse that could affect one of them.

And so only the fight - _**the war**_ \- could have been Zeus' answer.

War.

Against his own brother.

Against a dark and fearsome brother.

This, Zeus would be forced to do.

Or…

Or he would have to accept that things remained as they were.

But this was not possible.

At that point, after everything he had said, it was no longer possible.

Unless he had accepted to disclose that he knew already. Which was tantamount to admitting that he had lied.

And why? Why would he have had to lie?

The truth would necessarily be brought under everyone's eyes.

 _The truth._

 _ **Namely that he had been consenting!**_

And all this…

All this was even less possible.

So the only way for him was to get Helios keep quiet.

To make it so he didn't reveal anything.

But...

But Demeter ... - Hera's gaze darted to her sister - ...Demeter wouldn't allow it.

Hera looked down.

She did not appreciate the show anymore. It was no longer to her liking.

Every road was barred.

And the future would be ...

What?

 _What would it be?_

A future of... of war?

Against...

Against Hades?

* * *

"And now, without further ado, my love."

My love!

She, the splendid Persephone, had called him "my love!"

Hades was no longer able to be Hades.

He could only bask - barely conscious it was true - in what his ears were hearing; in what his eyes were admiring; in what the heart, that he had thought he could not possess, was beating for.

Above him, Persephone's gorgeous and fresh face lit up with an expression...

 _Saucy?_

Was this the term?

Her eyes were laughing.

Her fleshy mouth was smiling.

"My dear Al... do you remember? This is your name, for me... tell me everything about you. Tell me about your past. And tell me about your..."

Persephone stopped talking abruptly.

Her magnificent, luminous eyes became serious.

Her luscious lips stopped smiling.

Her voice grew serious.

"...tell me about your future."

Then those star eyes smiled again.

That beautiful face lit up again.

And that silvery voice laughed again.

But a shadow of worry - of fear, perhaps? - glistened in those laughing eyes.

A shadow of fear, of insecurity, resounded in that laughing voice.

"Tell me, my love… my Al... tell me what you want it to be my future."

The shining eyes blurred a little.

The silvery voice cracked a little.

"Tell me, I beg you, if you want my future to be ..."

The voice became a sigh.

"... the future of Hades".

* * *

"I've seen no one, o Supreme Zeus!" Helios' voice resounded loud and shrill. "No one!"

Zeus didn't move a single muscle. His face was made of stone.

Though within his mighty chest his heart were beating tumultuously.

But of stone rang also his voice.

"No one?"

Hera's eyes had snapped up towards Helios.

Like those of Demeter.

Who suddenly felt getting suffocated.

Her composed attitude dissolved abruptly.

She rushed towards Helios.

Her furious eyes darted over him.

Her high-pitched voice overwhelmed him.

"Helios, remember who you are!"

Demeter's voice rose even more.

"You are the Lord of the sun!"

Even more.

"A powerful and ancient God!"

Even more!

"You can not be a..."

EVEN MORE!

"...cowardly God!"

They were scathing and scornful words.

Words that hurt.

Ed Helios reacted.

Strongly.

Cowardly?

How did that newcomer of a Goddess dare? That parvenu?

 _ **Cowardly?**_

He?

Helios?

The one who drove the course of the sun long before that she and her brothers and sisters appeared in the world?

 **COWARDLY!**

How did she dare!?

Helios straightened up with majesty and pride.

 **HOW did she dare!? !**

He... he would... he would...

But, suddenly, he remembered of whom he was supposed to reveal the name.

And, at the same time, he realized that Zeus - the mighty Zeus - did not seem at all eager - even, not at all pleased - of coming in knowledge of the name of the kidnapper of Persephone.

Very far from him the idea of trying to understand the strange Zeus' behaviour, but it was still a very strange behaviour.

Dense of... dense of danger.

So then...

 _So then..._

Damn!

On one side the scary Hades!

And together, strangely, the mighty Zeus!

And on the other side...

On the other side... Demeter!

May she be damned!

And, in the middle, him!

Helios!

Who risked being crushed!

And who...

Who did not want to - could not! - to pass for a cowardly!

 **And this would not happen!**

It was time to show who he was!

 _ **It was time!**_

With remarkable effort, Helios managed to keep his proud attitude.

He looked straight into Zeus' eyes.

Into those cerulean and sure eyes.

And threatening.

That choked the words in his throat.

But he had to talk!

 **He had to talk!**

He had to show he was Helios, the conductor of the sun chariot!

He had to reveal whom he had seen...

Seen?!

Suddenly, Helios realized.

 _Seen?_

He...

He had not seen anyone!

What he had seen was...

And strong and confident resounded his words.

"O mighty Zeus, Lord of all Gods, I shall tell you what I have seen."

Helios turned his gaze to Demeter, then addressed Zeus again. With confident doing.

"I have seen Persephone, uselessly sought from above by her mother, by Demeter, rashly approach the grim forest that is the prelude to the realm of the dead."

He paused an instant.

Then resumed talking, in a loud voice.

"I have seen her go into it."

Another intense pause.

"I have seen her penetrate - incomprehensibly - into the thick and obscure tangle of its immense twisted trees. And then..."

One last, tense pause.

"And then I have seen her run desperately out of it. And the earth open up behind her. And the immense and obscure cleft that had chased after her from the forest, as if to swallow her."

Helios' eyes watched intensely Zeus.

"I have seen her disappear into the abyss that had opened beneath her."

His gaze sank into Zeus' gaze.

"This, I have seen."

Tension reverberated powerfully in the air.

"This."

There was silence.

A long, tense silence.

Then Demeter burst out.

"Damned! May your chariot plunge into that same abyss!"

Such was her fury that Helios found himself thrown to the ground.

But Demeter did not pay attention to him at all.

She ran to Zeus.

She threw herself at his feet.

She hugged his knees.

"You do not need to know the name, my Lord! You do not need that that worm of Helios says it!"

Her eyes lifted tearfully to the bearded face of Zeus.

"It's Hades, Zeus! It's him the kidnapper!" Helios hasn't wanted to say it openly, but has made it perfectly clear! "

Demeter stood up.

She straightened up in front of Zeus.

She looked at him with eyes both proud and pleading.

"Persephone is in the clutches of our dark brother!

Her eyes filled with fury.

By fury trembled her voice.

"You must take her away from him, Zeus! You must prevent her future from being a future..."

Horror. Pure horror. In her suddenly feeble voice.

"... with Hades."

* * *

 ** _End of Chapter Twenty One_**

 ** _TBC_**

 **oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo**

 _The future._

 _Of Persephone._

 _Of her mother._

 _Of Zeus, of Hera._

 _Of Gods and Mortals._

 _The future of the world._

 _The future that Hades will want it to be._


	22. Chapter 22

**For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**

 **By Asso**

 **Chapter Twenty-Two**

* * *

 _Love_

* * *

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

"It's not me to have to decide, Persephone. It's you the one who has to decide to be willing or not to share my destiny."

Hades had stood up, him too, to say this.

He had gently grabbed Persephone by the shoulders.

And his eyes made of everything and nothing was fixed in hers.

As serious and profound as his voice.

"What I told you is true, Persephone. Only if you want, you will share your destiny with mine."

Persephone tried to withstand that look that came from different worlds.

Other worlds.

Worlds made of soundless eternity.

Of dark emptiness.

Worlds that were not the world of flourishing beauty in which she had lived.

Until then.

Persephone felt fear.

A fear...

She...

Did she really want those dark worlds to become... her world?

She...

But she had given herself to him.

What did this mean?

What...?

It seemed that Hades had read her mind.

"You gave me the only joy I ever knew."

Persephone looked up sharply.

She looked at him as if she wanted to penetrate through his eyes into his mind.

"Yes, Persephone. Joy. You taught me what _'joy'_ means".

Persephone did not realize it, but she was holding her breath.

"You, Persephone, gave me the greatest thing. You gave me yourself. You ..."

Persephone felt her heart beating tumultuously in her chest.

"...you gave me love."

Persephone felt as if getting nullified in that look so empty and so full; so cold and so hot, so far and so close. In those words... 'different' ".

"You gave me the possibility - the capacity - of understanding it."

 _Her heart!_

 _Stop! Stop heart! Stop! Do not burst!_

"And its warmth."

 _STOP!_

"You gave me... life."

 _ **Stop! Stop, my heart!**_

"Life. To me. To the one who knew only death."

Persephone realized that her mouth was ajar.

As if she wanted to drink his words.

And it was so!

"Life."

Hades' voice became a whisper.

"Love."

An almost painful whisper.

"Love. To the one who does not know love."

A whisper that resounded as a repressed marvel shout.

"The one who… _**did not know**_ … love. And who now… knows."

 _There!_

 _It had happened!_

 _Her heart had burst!_

Persephone's hands snapped to rest on his arms.

They squeezed them.

Strongly.

But the whisper of Hades' voice rose again.

"But my joy does not have to be your damnation."

Persephone almost choked.

Vain her attempt to utter a single word.

"Wh…wha…?

Hades gave her no quarter.

"The marvellous, single moment of love you gave me, Persephone, can not be the premise of an eternity of blackness for you."

Persephone tried to speak, to retort, to rebut Hades' assertion. But she did not succeed. She, overwhelmed, found herself unable to speak.

And Hades kept hammering her soul and her heart.

"Mine is a destiny of emptiness and darkness. I can not - nor I want to - rush you into my darkness if you don't are really convinced and willing to do so."

And, at those words, finally Persephone found voice.

She snapped. Almost furious.

"Your joy was also my joy!"

Such was her fervour that she was having trouble talking.

"I told you… I told you… I told you that I understood! What my destiny is. And that… and that… _**that I accept it completely!**_ "

Hades stood quiet for a few moments, his eyes, luminous of dead light, fixed in Persephone's eyes, luminous of vivid life.

And then he spoke.

"Destiny overpowers us, Persephone. Neither God nor mortal can oppose his will."

Hades' voice resounded with the depths of his immense, empty realm.

"But what really is his will?"

His words were stones.

"Are you sure you understand Destiny's will?"

Stones!

"Are you sure that Destiny wants yours to be my destiny?"

STONES!

"Are you sure you want to give up your world of light to share my world of darkness?"

Persephone remained silent, her gaze fixed on his.

Then she lowered her eyes.

Then she lifted them up to him.

She looked at him intently.

Slowly, she got close to him.

His hands always on her shoulders, hers on his arms.

Her eyes still fixed on his.

She understood.

She understood he wanted to be sure.

She understood that if she had agreed to share his destiny, her life would be a dark life.

Not the life everyone had thought it would be for her.

And she understood his firmness.

And... the greatness of his soul.

A dark soul.

And yet shining by a righteousness... a righteousness...

An otherworldly righteousness.

Hades the dark.

The rigid, inflexible, incorruptible, aloof, unapproachable, unmentionable Hades.

Cold like diamond.

Hard like steel.

With anyone.

Even…

With himself.

Persephone understood.

She understood he wanted her to be really willing – glad. _Happy!_ \- to accept being part of his world of darkness.

She.

Just she.

Who should have brought a new light into the universe. Even if she could not even understand what light it should have been.

Yes.

She understood everything.

And she understood she should go further.

She understood she really had to understand if she really wanted to be part of his world.

She understood she had to know - really - his world.

* * *

Hera stood up.

And so things had come to the point. Demeter had taken the lid off the vase.

And from that vase the truth had come out violently.

And now?

Denying was impossible. Her husband knew very well that he could not do it.

So then? Would he take the field against his brother?

In what would have become a war with a not at all granted outcome?

And how could he not do it?

Would he reveal his connivance with Hades to avoid it? His deal with him?

But not even this - least of all, this - he could do!

Also bringing to light all the lies that he had said!

Not even... not even his undisputed and acknowledged authority would save him from the public ridicule!

Poseidon's guffaws would echo in the depths of the seas; they would spread everywhere; they would come to the surface of the waters; they would leap out; they would bounce until the sky!

That sky which was now the dwelling of him, Zeus, as well as of her, and, by extension, of all the Gods.

And symbol itself of his power!

A power that... that could be nicked - even collapse - under the weight of those laughs.

Which could infect everything and everyone!

Which could mark the beginning of the end of Zeus' power! And therefore also of her own power.

Because power is based on strength, but also on credibility.

If this is lost, strength is no longer sufficient.

And Poseidon lived in the seas, but did not disdain the sky.

And he was powerful.

And, perhaps, not immune from being tempted, if the opportunity would occur, to subvert the ancient covenant between the three brothers.

Maybe even siding with Hades, exchanging Persephone with supreme power.

Slowly and majestically, Hera advanced, placing herself beside her husband.

The moment was serious more than ever and she had to make him feel she was with him.

She slid her smooth, shapely arm under the muscular and powerful arm of him.

She had to instil confidence and courage in him.

She had to inspire in him her faith that he would know how to get by, that he would find the right way.

And she succeeded.

* * *

"The moment has come, my Lord."

Her hands had loosened their grip on his arms and now rested quietly on them.

His eyes were staring questioningly and perplexed at hers.

"Let me know your world."

A quiet, determined whisper, her voice.

A light of vivid amazement in his eyes.

"Accompany me in your world, protecting me from its dangers, as you said it would be necessary to do if I had wanted to venture into it."

Hades did not speak.

He was staring at her.

 _Was staring_ _at_ _her_ _._

 _ **Was staring at her.**_

"I want to do it, Hades."

 _ **WAS STARING AT HER.**_

He felt her warm hands on his arms.

"Your world will reveal to me all I want to know about you."

Her hands held his arms.

"Your past."

They squeezed them tightly.

"And my future."

* * *

"Hades did what he did with my consent, Demeter."

The world stopped.

Hera stopped breathing.

Helios stopped at half his rising up from the ground.

And Demeter stood still, motionless, her eyes staring at Zeus and wide open like her mouth, looking for air.

The grave and powerful voice of Zeus rose.

It filled the air.

"I felt, I have always felt, that Fate had in store for Persephone the light."

It boomed low and severe in it.

"But also the shadow."

The air seemed to be made of the same words themselves of Zeus.

"And I had understood."

Stone words.

Words that smelled of knowledge.

"I am Zeus."

Unearthly knowledge.

"I had understood that the shadow hanging over Persephone was Hades' shadow."

Zeus stood quiet.

Slowly and majestically he shook his head topped by his thick hair.

He looked at Hera for a moment and then turned, taking his arm away from hers.

He folded his hands behind his back and, without looking back, spoke.

"I decided I had to oppose the will of Destiny. This is why I wanted Persephone never to be left alone. This is why I have consented that her childhood and girlhood had to take place in the saddest of loneliness. This is why I acquiesced that you, Demeter, oppressed her with your suffocating and exclusive affection."

If Demeter resented these words, it is not known.

All is known is that she was listening to what Zeus said with the expression of the person who strived to understand without being able to understand.

Slowly Zeus turned.

He folded his arms across his chest.

He looked at Demeter with grave and sad eyes.

"But Destiny is Destiny, Demeter, my sister. It sooner or later presents the bill. Sooner or later it shows its face, a face that is different from time to time."

Zeus' eyes seemed to become two deep pools.

"And it presented me the bill with Hades' face."

* * *

Hades' face became even more diaphanous than it already was.

His eyes widened.

In the attempt to grasp at full the meaning of Persephones' words.

His voice resounded stifled.

"You... you want me to accompany you out there?"

A whisper, the voice of Persephone.

"Yes."

"You want me to show you my world?"

"Yes."

"It's the darkness world, Persephone!"

Almost a scream, his voice.

"DARKNESS!"

 _A scream._

" **MY** DARKNESS!"

A sigh. An extremely low, an extremely sweet sigh, hers. Her whispered reply.

"I want to know if your darkness is my light."

* * *

"Hades' face is the face of darkness!"

Demeter had recovered.

So to speak.

And now she was reacting.

And was screaming.

"The face of an obscure and dark monster!"

Standing upright, clenched fists, livid face, she was screaming.

"The face of the one who does not know love!"

Zeus grew livid.

Black clouds thickened aloft. In the dark sky.

Clenched fists, him too; angry face; he shouted in turn to Demeter's face.

"But maybe Persephone can teach him what love is!"

Demeter goggled her eyes.

It almost seemed like she was suffocating.

Finally she managed to speak.

With a shrill and strident voice.

"You are crazy, brother!"

* * *

"Persephone, you are... you are crazy!"

"Crazy?"

"Yes, Persephone. You are..."

"Crazy! Yes! I am crazy with love for you!"

"Eh? Ph ... Pers ..."

"And I'm so crazy to want to know your world in all its respects! In all its darkness!"

"Persephone!"

"I want to know if my destiny is to enlighten your world with my light!"

Persephone threw herself into Hades' arms.

"And I will succeed!"

She hugged him tightly. Her face in his chest.

"I will bring..."

For the first time - In full. Completely - she understood what it meant to be the Goddess of Spring.

What was her task of goddess.

"I will bring spring into your dark world."

Yes. She understood that.

"In your dark soul."

She understood that!

"Because only your darkness can turn on my light."

SHE UNDERSTOOD THAT!

"Take me out, Hades, my love! Take me out into the darkness of your world! Let its darkness - your darkness - enter into me! Let your darkness vivify the light that is in me! "

 **SHE UNDERSTOOD THAT!**

"Let me know if your darkness is my destiny!"

 _ **SHE UNDERSTOOD THAT!**_

"Let me be free to fulfil my destiny!"

* * *

No one had ever dared so much.

The clouds in the sky swelled up.

They exploded.

With lightnings and thunders and thunderbolts.

A pandemonium.

Then, all of a sudden, everything went silent.

And Zeus' face was dead calm.

Like his voice.

"I made a deal with Hades, woman."

Demeter drew back abruptly.

"A... a deal!"

"Yes. He put me in front of the evidence. In front of the will of destiny. So I made a deal with him. I agreed that he could take Persephone in the only way possible. By kidnapping her. Because, even with me consenting he had her, he, like me, knew perfectly well that you would have opposed fiercely, up… well yes… up to the extreme consequences. Certainly never you would have consented to any request in this sense from him." Zeus' eyebrow rose a little, as in disdain. "As well as from anyone else, in truth."

Zeus' voice grew grave and intense.

"Therefore he would kidnap her. And in our agreement it was tacitly established that neither you nor anyone else would ever know who the kidnapper was."

"But... but..." - A stutter. - "...but how did you... you... how did you... how could you..."

Zeus decided to go all the way.

He had to do it.

"Or the pact or the war. And I do not want a war between me and Hades. I do not want a fratricidal war. I do not want to upset the world order once again."

Hera looked at her husband with amazed admiration.

He really deserved to be Zeus! The Lord of the world!

Saying and not saying. Lying and yet being truthful at the same time.

Say what it's needed. And which is true.

And do not say what is not needed. Leaving to understand what you want to be understood.

This was Zeus. Her spouse.

And who else could have been like him?

Certainly not Poseidon. Who could never have held up the fate of the world with such a flexible hand.

Hades?

No! No no no no!

Not him!

Not the bleak king of nothing!

Her husband had acted well! Yup! He had acted well!

Everything! EVERYTHING! Even coming to terms with Hades! Even being in agreement with Persephone's abduction! With the glisten of her new light in Hades' dark world. Everything! In order not to risk a war that could also have ended with the affirmation of his dark world!

Zeus' low, powerful voice tore Hera away from her thoughts."

"I've substantially stipulated with Hades the deal that he would abduct Persephone without me opposing. And I facilitated the kidnapping by loosening surveillance on Persephone at the appointed time. Letting her enjoy a moment of freedom. Far away from me, from her overseers, from her nymphs. From you."

Demeter - wide-eyed - mumbled between the livid lips.

"You ... you ... did this!"

"Yes. I did it, Demeter, because it was the right thing to do."

"You..."

It was a hoarse cry, that "you". An indictment.

And Zeus retorted angrily.

"Do not doubt my choices, Demeter. Do not you dare!"

But Demeter was not even able to grasp Zeus' sever warning.

"You dared..."

The black clouds thickened again with scary fastness, booming. Covering whatever Demeter could have in mind to say.

Then, they quickly dispersed again.

Zeus had managed to regain calm again.

But a low roar was his voice.

"Persephone will choose. The choice of her fate will be hers. Hades will make her his and will hold her with him only if she wants it."

Demeter felt her heart burst in her chest.

"But... but how can you believe that Hades respects such a pact? How can you believe that that abject monster can..."

"Hades never lies, sister."

Demeter opened her mouth wide. But nothing came out of it except the hiss of her frozen breath.

"It's his damnation, sister. Hades is damned to being sincere, up to be hateful, as if all for what he's hated were not enough for him to be hated. He's the Lord of the kingdom where falsehood can not exist."

And, at that point, Demeter exploded.

"Not as you did, eh, brother? Not as you did! **You lied!** Shamelessly! To me and to everyone! You told an avalanche of fibs! You have..."

"My intent was to protect Persephone, sister! She had and has to be free to make her choice. It was not lies, mine. Was tutelage."

"Tu... tutelage!"

"Yes. It was to be no interference from anyone. And least of all from you, Demeter."

"I am her mother!"

"And I am her father. And I am Zeus. And so I have decided!"

"You have deceived the world, Zeus! You have deceived me, your sister, your lover, your daughter's mother!"

"The world is mine, Demeter. And the world will understand."

The cerulean eyes of Zeus pinned the delirious ones of Demeter.

"Make so you too can understand, sister."

Demeter gasped.

Then, almost suddenly, her face flattened.

It seemed to become rock.

And rock was her voice.

"The world is yours, Zeus. But Persephone is mine."

There was something in that voice...

Something that made Zeus' powerful heart tremble.

"I do not care about your deal with the monster who snatched my daughter."

Almost with effort Zeus tried to reply.

There was something in Demeter's voice.

Something...

"Demeter ..."

Something chilling.

"The world is yours, Zeus. But my power is not."

And nothing else, there has been.

Demeter got up in the air suddenly.

She soared aloft.

In the dark sky.

A small dot up there.

Far away.

She vanished into thin air.

* * *

There was a long silence.

Long.

Dense.

Bated.

And then, finally, Hades smiled.

Hades smiled!

The brightest smile in the world!

"You are free, Persephone. Free to choose. Your destiny."

Persephone looked at Hades with attentive eyes.

"And so?"

"So, my dear, if you wish to know my world, who am I ever to oppose your desire?"

And the smile bloomed on Persephone's lips.

And in her voice.

The smile and the roguish fun.

"An answer worthy of Hades, of his well-known sarcasm. The Lord of the vast kingdom of the Underworld, the mighty Hades, one of the Gods of the High Triad, who says he can do nothing against the desire of a poor, helpless, defenceless girl."

Ed Hades laughed.

He laughed out loud.

"Poor? Helpless? Defenceless? May Destiny protect me from such a poor, helpless, defenceless girl!"

A hint of pout - a delicious pout - rippled Persephone's beautiful mouth.

"Do you really want Destiny to protect you from me, Hades?"

Hades remained dumbfounded.

Yes. The obscure Lord of the Underworld remained dumbfounded.

Then he recovered.

And he laughed.

Again.

Gently.

And gently laughed his harsh, deep voice.

"No. I do not want it, but I fear Destiny does not know how to protect itself from you."

Persephone smiled quietly, the fun in her eyes.

"Will you accompany me to your world, Hades?"

"Sure. When you want, Persephone."

And Persephone's eyes widened.

And she spoke excitedly.

Stammering.

"At... at dawn! At the dawn of your world!"

"At dawn?"

"Yes! At dawn! I... I want to have some more time!"

"Some more time?"

"Yes!"

"For what, Persephone?"

"For loving you!"

And suddenly...

In the love ...

Passionate...

Impetuous...

Ardent...

Suddenly everything else disappeared.

Far away.

It vanished into thin air.

* * *

 _ **End of Chapter Twenty-Two**_

 _ **TBC**_

 **oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo**

 _The love._

 _Everything gets annulled in it._

 _It disappears._

 _It vanishes into thin air._

 _But reality exists, however._

 _It exists._

 _Ready to claim its scot._


	23. Chapter 23

**For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**

 **By Asso**

 **Chapter Twenty-Three**

* * *

 _The dawn of a new world._

* * *

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

A long night.

Long.

A night to be forgotten.

Zeus was alone, now.

Helios...

Eh! He had hurried to go away.

Gone off without saying nor being told goodbye.

Right after Demeter was gone. In that way. With those words.

Disturbing.

He had to admit it.

Disquieting words.

And Hera, his wife... well, she knew when it was time to leave him alone.

To think.

Dawn was rising.

Evidently Helios had recovered. Enough at least, judging by the fact that his chariot had risen in flight again.

In fact, the light of day was rising.

However...

What a strange light!

Cold.

Lustreless.

As if something...

And it was cold.

Yes. It was cold.

But world was never cold. The world he reigned on.

Cold was not part of that world.

Demeter always kept it comfortable, cosy, warm, pleasant...

And... fertile.

Luxuriant.

Zeus frowned his thick eyebrows.

He looked up into the strange, livid light of that cold dawn.

Demeter.

Her power.

Her power over the world.

The power that was hers.

Only hers.

And not his.

A power over which he had no power.

Sinuous and insidious, a shiver ran along the spine of Zeus' mighty body.

A chill of cold.

* * *

A long night.

Long.

And marvellous!

A night to be remembered.

Forever.

Now, it was dawn.

The strange, livid, unmoving dawn of that world.

 _His_ world.

Maybe... hers, too?

Persephone turned in his marmoreal arms.

Marmoreal.

Yet so warm in their embrace.

So comforting.

So welcoming.

So sure in supporting her, during love.

During… their making love.

Persephone let her sleepy eyes run over his diaphanous, fine face.

Was he sleeping?

Or, again, was he alert?

As lurking.

"I'm not sleeping, my flower."

Again, he caught her by surprise.

Her bright eyes snapped to his obscure eyes that were smiling in their obscure, uncanny way.

"I was waiting for you to wake up."

Those dark, hypnotizing eyes narrowed under the white eyelashes.

"I was waiting for you to wake up to take you out there."

That look beyond the worlds almost seemed to wink.

"As you told me you wanted to do, Persephone. And still provided that you want to do it yet."

Persephone smiled. With warmth. To him and to herself.

She stretched, voluptuously, in his arms.

And her smile grew stronger, feeling his body stiffen, at the voluptuous getting arched of her naked body against his naked body.

She clung strict to him, perceiving with impish satisfaction the increasing heat of his body.

"Of course I want it yet, my Lord."

It laughed, her voice.

It sounded sleepy, yet it laughed.

"I want to know. I want..." And, suddenly, Persephone's voice no longer laughed. "... _I want to perceive your world!_ "

No. Her voice no longer laughed.

"I want to know... I want to know..."

"You will know, Persephone."

His grave voice gave body to her unexpressed words.

"You will know."

And to his inexpressible hope.

"And I will know too."

* * *

Zeus moved slowly past the columns of his palace.

His gaze ran along the lawns.

Along the slopes of Olympus.

Above the white candour that was slowly getting covering them.

In the whirling of milky flakes that were stirring in the cold of the air.

His voice burst out. Trying to counter the loud angry hiss of the wind.

"Demeter!"

Then it lowered.

It became a thoughtful murmur.

"Demeter, my sister..."

A soft breath in the virulent breath of that unknown thing.

Of that storm of gelid, impalpable white flakes, never-seen before.

"What are you doing?"

* * *

Persephone moved slowly past the majestic portal of his palace, the same portal she had adventurously and inconsiderately crossed to enter his dark, immense manor.

Her gaze ran along the…were they lawns? Could it be possible? So black and dark? Without anything green that could make them sound such? Without any stain of colour that could even remotely recall a flower?

Her gaze rose, ran far away, along the steep, craggy slopes that, far beyond that gloomy, ashen semblance of meadows, fell darkly towards the distant, blind horizon.

It ran beyond those gloomy meadows, to the far mountain reliefs that surrounded and delimited - immensely distant - that dark world, livid of a light that light was not.

They were the rugged mountains, the steep rocky walls, shining with myriads of flickering lights, which she had caught with her trembling, astonished gaze, when his chariot had brought her in a precipitous rush downward. Towards his regal, dark dwelling.

Now she saw them from afar, those rugged reliefs.

And their huge bulk, even at their incommensurable distance, made her grasp the immensity of that closed, yet immeasurable world.

His world.

Immense.

And dark

And empty.

Just as...

Her gaze ran upward.

Just as...

Where was it?

Where was the sky?

Was...

Was that the sky of that world?

It was that?

A huge emptiness far, far, far away?

Without sun?

Without...

Without anything?

A whitish void, reverberating with an opaque, ashen light, without body or substance?

"This is my world, Persephone."

Low, his voice.

And gloomy.

Behind her.

Behind her back.

"This is my kingdom."

And sad.

"The kingdom Destiny has wanted to bestow upon me."

Gloomy and sad.

"And that I accepted."

 _Gloomy and sad._

"The world I have always been in."

 _ **Gloomy and sad.**_

"My world."

And suddenly, Persephone understood.

She understood his dark grandeur.

Only he - ONLY HE! ONLY HIS IMMENSE STRENGTH! - could withstand such an empty solitude! Such a gloomy emptiness!

But she would fill that void!

She would...

She would illuminate that dark world!

She would lighten up his world and his heart with her light!

She felt his cold hand resting on her shoulder.

Slight.

She heard his voice whisper in her ear.

Slight.

"Are you sure, my flower? Are you certain? Do you really want to know this world? My world?"

Persephone's warm hand ran to rest on his cold hand.

She leaned back to his strong, cold body.

Sure, her voice.

Low and soft.

Yet sure.

Yes.

Sure.

Because she had understood.

For real.

And once and for all.

She wanted and needed to know his world.

But not because its knowing would allow her to understand if she really wanted that world to become also hers.

She wanted and needed to know that world because she wanted and needed to know what would be her own world from now and forever.

The world she would bring her light in.

Her… _spring_.

"Let's go, my Lord. Let your woman know her own world."

And then she laughed.

Her silvery laughter filled the void of that empty world.

And, under the perplexed and questioning gaze of Hades, she laughed again.

She laughed.

At the thought of what her mother would tell her if she had been there at that moment.

 _"Persephone ..."_

Persephone stifled her laugh. But inside herself she continued to laugh.

 _"... what are you doing?"_

* * *

 ** _End of Chapter Twenty-Three_**

 ** _TBC_**

 **oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo**

 _The dawn of a new world._

 _But Destiny is always at work._


	24. Chapter 24

**For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**

 **By Asso**

 **Chapter Twenty-Four**

* * *

 _The Kingdom of Dead_

* * *

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

White.

All white.

White everywhere.

Dazzling.

Alienating.

White on the ground.

And white in the sky.

White.

Whirling.

Lashing.

In the hissing wind.

White.

Eddying in virulent, never before seen lumps that fidgeted in the impetuous gale.

Impalpable and icy lumps that enveloped you, taking your breath away, preventing you from seeing, obscuring your gaze.

Zeus shook his thick white beard.

He shook his thick white hair.

To try to free them of that new, chilling white that covered their own white.

White.

And cold.

Cold.

Cold!

COLD!

* * *

Cold.

Cold!

COLD!

Persephone felt a shiver run along her bare shoulders and back.

Along her nude legs.

She squeezed herself into the black sleeveless, backless, deeply low-cut dress she wore.

The dress she had chosen for going out to discover his world; the dress she felt and knew to be the most suitable for that world, dark and tremendously far away from the chaste rules of her own world, or, rather, from the colourless and flat rules of the life she should have had to live in that world.

The dress she felt and knew he liked.

The dress which said that she was his.

And which said she was - and happy to be so - as she knew he liked she were.

She squeezed herself into that silken, precious garment, made of a fabric that seemed interwoven with the black itself of the darkest night.

Attempting to defend herself someway from that otherworldly cold.

She had not felt it before, in their descent.

Even dressed in the slight, virginal, white tunic that was her habitual gown in the world above, she had not felt that cold before.

She had not noticed it.

Too much engrossed in her thoughts.

In her fear of what she had done.

In the wonder of what was happening.

In the amazement of her choice.

In her fear... and in her yearning.

 _Her indictable yearning_ _._

But now she felt it.

That cold.

The unspeakable cold of his realm.

 _His_ cold.

"It's cold, I know. Mine is the realm of cold. _My_ cold."

His voice.

Low.

And thoughtful.

And gloomy.

And...

Doleful?

Yes.

Doleful.

 _Doleful!_

And full…

Full of her feelings.

Of her thoughts.

A voice... his one...

A voice... words... revealing his capability of penetrating her mind and her heart.

Of giving body to her thoughts.

To her sensations.

To her most intimate thoughts.

To her most intimate sensations.

A voice that no one else - ever - had had.

Something came suddenly to rest on her shoulders; wrapped itself around her.

Something warm.

His cloak.

Persephone huddled up into that cloak.

And into the arms that were holding her, enveloping the mantle all around her.

To shelter her.

His arms.

Strong.

Mighty.

Cold.

With the cold of his realm.

Yet also eerily warm.

Something...

 _As if they were looking for heat._

"Let's see if I can temper your cold."

A chirping, Persephone's voice.

Blithe. Lively.

And sweet.

"I would very much like not needing your cape to protect me from your cold."

She turned in his arms.

She looked at him with cheerful eyes.

"Let's see if your cold can become my heat."

Her gaze became serious.

"If my heat is really meant to temper your cold."

His piercing gaze was fixed on her star-like gaze.

"Do we go, my Lord?"

His beautiful, glabrous, masculine, gaunt, alabaster visage nodded with decisiveness.

Gravely and confidently.

Yet, someway, apprehensively, too.

"Let's go, Persephone."

* * *

The first was Poseidon.

And it was certainly not surprising.

Was he or was he not Poseidon? The mighty Lord of the seas? One of the supreme triad?

Even in the whirlwind of the wind that gave no breath, even in the tempestuous chaos that enveloped and obscured everything, his voice made itself be heard, powerful.

" **BROTHER**!"

Zeus almost jumped at the force of that call.

"What's going on? Did it happen by chance the Titans to be freed from Tartarus in which you relegated them?"

Zeus sharpened his eyesight in an attempt to see through the swirl of those strange icy soft lumps that filled the air.

His brother's voice, though submerged by the cold and ruinous wind, led him.

"I had to shatter an icy slab covering the entire surface of my kingdom to raise me up to Olympus, to your palace."

There he was. An indistinct figure beyond the palace's columns, covered with a cold white. Standing upright on one of what had been green meadows and now appeared as icy white expanses, barely visible in the whirlwind swirls of those damn impalpable lumps of ice.

"I repeat. What is happening, brother? You are Zeus." And a noticeable note of disrespectful irony resounded in that voice that managed to resonate mighty even in that ruckus. "Yours is the supreme power. You must know."

"And he knows."

Zeus suddenly turned his face.

Hera was next to him.

Proud and haughty.

Like her voice.

Her hand took his.

"Do you doubt, perhaps, Poseidon?"

A voice that was a challenge to Poseidon.

And a support for him, Zeus.

And an imperious invitation.

To speak.

To be Zeus.

And, with a tight to Hera's hand before releasing it, Zeus acted as Zeus had to do.

He proudly advanced a few steps.

His voice rumbled louder than the impetuous wind that enveloped everything.

"Enter my palace, Poseidon."

His gaze ranged all around. Imperious, in his command.

"Come in, all of you o Gods. I command so."

And the palace got filled.

Other Gods had come, all the greatest. Mute and almost indiscernible in that never seen blizzard, they had surrounded Poseidon, supporting him without speaking in his request.

And they now filled the great palace, lined up behind Poseidon.

In silence.

Waiting.

For Zeus to speak.

* * *

Persephone felt his waiting.

He was waiting.

For her to speak.

They were beyond the large, long black stone bridge that led to his immense manor.

They were in front of his kingdom.

Of its vastness.

How distant were those mountains on the horizon?

Those mountains whose peaks faded away high above, disappearing in the nothingness of that sky made of nothingness?

How distant was that horizon?

And how much, the nothingness of that empty sky which sky was not?

How vast was that darkness soaked in a light that was made of dark?

Leaning on him with her back, wrapped in his dark cloak, enveloped in his arms, Persephone, finally, managed to make up her mind to speak.

With a faint voice.

A voice that was astonishment.

"But how great is your dominion, my Lord?"

"It has no limits, Persephone."

Persephone twisted her neck and raised her head to look at Hades, from the bottom up.

Her eyes were pure amazement.

He looked down at her, as his arms tightened her even more.

"You could never reach those mountains that seem to delimit the boundaries of my kingdom. You could never come to lose yourself in its sky. My kingdom is infinite, Persephone, it has no boundaries. Its boundaries are illusion."

Persephone turned her head to look at those distant mountains, that distant sky.

And his voice answered her thoughts. Her stupefied, unexpressed questions.

"Mine is the kingdom of the dead, Persephone. Of all those who have been there. And of all those who will be there. Only infinity can welcome infinity."

* * *

It seemed an infinity.

An infinity of time.

So it seemed the time that took to him to make up his mind to speak finally.

But in the end Zeus spoke.

And never had his voice resounded so grave in all the aeons that had passed since the advent of the dominance of the Olympian gods after the defeat of the Titans.

* * *

Never had Persephone heard a voice resound so grave.

That was not simply the voice of the Lord of the Underworld.

That was the voice of infinity.

"At first there was Tartarus, emanation of Chaos. A bottomless chasm, which starts from the sky and sinks into nothingness, deep down, inside the huge bowels of Gaia. A place-non-place. Dark. Transformed into a prison. The dark and remote prison, with no way out, where your father Zeus relegated Cronos and the Titans who fought together with him, after I, Poseidon and he, Zeus, defeated them."

Hades was silent for a moment.

Then he began to speak again and his harsh and deep voice seemed to resound with the infinite depths of time.

"And Tartarus was the only real existing thing in the formless void of afterlife until I arrived. Until I agreed to be Hades, the Lord of the Underworld."

And Persephone realized.

Hades was revealing her his past, his story. As she had desired, he was revealing his life to her. Who he had been and who he was. She was about to learn everything about him from him. And this was exceptional, almost... almost like what had happened between them. Because he was Hades. The obscure Unknown One. The one of whom nothing else was known except that he was Hades. The Lord of the Underworld.

The grandiosity of what was happening almost risked choking Persephone. No one knew anything but minuscule fragments of truth about the dark Lord of Dead.

And when she had told him that she wanted to know all about him, in reality never she would have seriously hoped that this could happen for real.

And instead it was happening.

And through his living voice.

Through him himself.

Which meant ... which meant...

Which meant that, for him, she was something more... much more than what she had thought - at the beginning! At the beginning, of course! - she could be!

His grave voice pulled her out of her thoughts abruptly.

"When I arrived, I found laments."

Again, Hades stood silent.

His voice sounded almost like a rabid sob, when it let itself be heard again.

"Bodyless voices."

One more time. A pause. Tense.

Then Hades resumed talking, darkly.

"Myriads of shadows, of souls. Young people, old people, men, women, children, vainly swirling in the insubstantial void around the nothingness of the Tartarus chasm. Dead, without a place to stay."

And Persephone perceived.

She clearly perceived the immeasurable strength of the King of the Underworld.

The Land of Nothingness had he been allotted by fate and he…

"I built for those incorporeal voices a place to stay in. A kingdom. My kingdom."

… he had turned that land of nothingness into...

"The Kingdom of Dead."

* * *

"The Kingdom of Dead."

Zeus' voice overtopped everything. Low, yet it overtopped everything.

"Over there you must look for the cause of what is happening. "

There was silence.

A chilling, dreadful silence.

It seemed that even the rabid whistling of the wind was turned into silence.

And then the silence got broken.

Poseidon spoke.

With flat voice.

By giving voice to everyone's voice.

"The Kingdom of Dead!"

* * *

 _ **End of Chapter Twenty-Four**_

 _ **TBC**_

 **oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo**

 _The Kingdom of Dead._

 _Persephone has begun to glimpse it._

 _Now matter is she has to see it for real._

 _And we together with her._

 _Are you ready, my friends?_


	25. Chapter 25

**For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?**

 **By Asso**

 **Chapter Twenty-Five**

* * *

 _The Kingdom of Dead._

 _And its Queen._

* * *

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

"I changed the nothingness of the Realm that had been assigned to me. I gave it shape."

Hades' grave voice was narrating.

It was telling of ancient times.

It was telling of the birth of the world as Persephone knew it.

It was telling of the dawn of her world.

It was telling of how he, Hades, had shaped that world. The part of that world that was his own world.

 _That... that was her own world, now?_

Persephone felt something inside her, something putting you in awe. Somehow... somehow Hades' words made it so that she perceived in full, as never before, who he was.

Hades.

The Lord of the Underworld.

Sure.

But also one of the makers - and, perhaps, in some way the major - of the world as it was now. Indeed... indeed, in hindsight, the only true builder of this world. Eh sure! Because Zeus' dominion so had been before him and so with his advent; he had nothing to do with what it was. And the same was true of Poseidon. But the dominion of him, of Hades, had not existed before him. He had given it a form, as he himself had revealed to her. And therefore, if the world of now was what it was, it was because Hades - He. EXACTLY HE! - had made it so that it was so!

Hades... Hades was really an ancient and powerful God. Frighteningly powerful.

And only now did she fully realize it.

Yes, she knew how ancient her father Zeus was, how ancient was her mother Demeter.

And all the others Gods born from Rhea's womb.

And she knew how great Zeus' power was, as well as Poseidon's, albeit a bit inferior.

But now, Hades' words, the vision, albeit nebulous and indistinct - quite different, wider, more complete, more significant than she had been able to observe in her descent towards that world on his chariot - of his metaphysical yet tangible realm, of its immensity - and of its antiquity - were making her truly comprehend the mystery of the vastness of the world under the sky and, above all, under the ground. And the vastness of time, the time from which Hades - like Zeus, like Poseidon, like her mother, like the other Gods born of the monstrous Cronos - came.

And the incorporeal and appalling sight of the vastness of Hades' realm, the acquisition of the awareness of its tremendous extension back in time and of its prolonging ahead indefinitely forward in it, gave a force - a terrifying force - to that understanding of her, which took her breath away.

Because the vision of that realm, the understanding of its infinity - in space and time, as Hades' words had made it be clear - was the vision of the infinity of space and time in themselves.

And of the infinity of the dominion of Hades.

And of his impalpable power, practically unknown in its real extent and substance.

Yet immeasurable.

IMMEAUSURABLE!

A power able to put even Poseidon in awe.

Even...

Even her father!

The high Zeus!

A power...

A power perhaps infinite.

As infinite his dominion was.

Oh certainly! Because, as he himself had made it be very clear, Zeus' dominion could be immense, Poseidon's dominion could be immense ... but infinite had it to be - and it was, in time and space - his dominion.

The dominion of Hades.

And...

AND…!

And that supreme God, that God whose shadow dominated everything - including the immeasurable shadow of Zeus; including the immense shadow of Poseidon - ... that God ... that God was her God! He had wanted her! He…

He had lowered himself to her!

To the last born among all the Goddesses!

And... he hadn't forced her to give herself to him!

Even with his infinite power, even with the right coming to him from being what he was, he had not do it!

Not at all!

Who or what could have prevented him?

He was Hades!

Now she fully understood what this meant.

And she was nothing in front of him!

A twig!

A miserable, newly born Goddess yet unable even to really understand of what she was the Goddess!

A little female with no skills nor talents of whom take possession to his liking!

Without so much thinking about it.

But he hadn't done it.

He had waited.

He had waited for her to want him to take her.

She!

She had wanted this to happen!

She had wanted him to take possession of her!

Sure! He had kidnapped her.

SURE!

But... but would there have been any other way to steal her away from her mother's asphyxiating hug?

No!

There was no other way!

And...

And besides... after all... she... she...

She had followed him spontaneously!

And...

And it had been her who had given herself to him!

She!

She had wanted him inside her!

Inside her body!

As… as he already was inside her heart!

Will of destiny?

Maybe.

Or... or better, certainly.

But she had not opposed this will.

Far from it!

She...

She had made such a will her own!

And she had stated this clearly!

And now...

Now she...

She was looking at his world as no one else had ever observed it!

She was watching it as...

… _as if that world..._

Could that one be her new, true world?

Could she feel it as if it were her own world?

And, if so, even if this had taken place, what part would she have in that world?

Whom, what would she be in that world?

"But for it to have a truly accomplished shape, my Realm, Persephone, needs a Queen."

Persephone's head snapped towards Hades.

Her eyes did point, wide open, at his face.

It was serious.

Grave.

And he was looking at her intently.

"You understood very well, Persephone, my Lady. I already told you, at the time of our descent on my chariot. But perhaps you didn't pay much attention to it, in the inner turmoil that you certainly felt in those moments."

It was true. He had already told her and, even then, she was surprised by this. But it was also true that his words, his affirmation, had immediately slipped away from her, because ... because certainly she could not, in those moments, fully grasp them in all their power and substance, exactly as he was now saying. However, now it was different. Many things ... many things had happened. And now ... now she could pay to his statement, which he had now reaffirmed with quiet strength, all her attention. She could grasp its meaning for what it really was. And this meaning took on even more strength in light of the fact that ... in light of the fact that, on closer inspection, all in all he would have no need to tell her. Because he had already made her his own. And so... so that meant he didn't lie, that it was really true that the lie was something that could not be harboured in, that didn't have place in the Lord of hereafter. Ultimately… ultimately that it had not been false promises, his. That he really wanted... that he really wanted her to...

Persephone couldn't believe it.

But it was true.

He, Hades, answering her unspoken question, was definitively telling her that...

"It is not a concubine, a female to take pleasure of, what I want. I want a Queen."

Persephone was open-mouthed.

Almost she could not think straight.

His cloak, no longer held by his hands, slid down from her, but she didn't feel cold. Actually, she felt blaze up.

It wasn't... it wasn't possible!

She couldn't believe her ears!

But he continued.

And his words were unmistakable.

"A Queen. And a Bride."

Persephone felt her heart beat like a hammer.

Blood throbbed at her temples.

But really... really he...?

"I am the one who did not know love. Now I know it. You taught it to me, Persephone, my Lady."

REALLY HE ...?!

"And what I can give you in return is really little compared to the immensity of your gift. But it is yours, if you want it. Not my heart, no matter how cold it may be, because it already belongs to you. You made it beat, as a living and warm thing, really, for the first time in my very long life. You made it beat with that thing for me earlier incomprehensible, remote, distant, which I knew only by name. You made it beat with love. For you."

Hades paused.

His face was tense. He was saying difficult things, really hard to say, for him.

He recovered.

His face turned determined.

And his voice with it.

"My Kingdom. That's what I want to mean. It is yours. Exactly as I already told you previously, during our descent. You will reign over it as its Queen. As my Bride. "

Abruptly, that alabaster visage seemed to go even paler.

Hades' voice dropped to be a murmur.

Shy.

Hesitant.

And his eyes made of darkness seemed to sparkle with something...

Something...

As if they... as if they were... moist!

"If you want that, my Lady."

Then those eyes came back to life.

His face turned to be Hades' face again.

And his voice again assumed its vaguely mocking tone.

At least it attempted.

"You had a far off view of my world, during our overflight over it and now, more... vivid. Of the world that I give you, as long as you want it, in exchange for your gift, Persephone. Now, as you wanted, the time has come to see it up close, to explore it. In this way..."

And the deliberately mocking tone disappeared.

"... in this way, exactly as you yourself understood it was to be done, you will be able to comprehend if, as you said, its cold could become your warmth, if your warmth could become its cold. If my cold can become your warmth, if your warmth can become my cold."

It disappeared _totally_.

"If my gelid and dark world may be worthy of being warmed by your warmth and lightened up by your light. If it may be the world of which you might be willing to be the Queen. As my Bride and Lady."

For not a few moments Persephone stood looking at Hades with her mouth and eyes wide open.

Then finally she managed to recover her voice. A faint breath of incredulous voice.

"You... you are not talking seriously, are you, my Lord?"

Hades' eyes blazed.

"Do you think Hades can lie, woman? Again this absurd and offensive thought gleams to your mind? "

Involuntarily, Persephone, under the force of that gaze and under the vehemence, although restrained, of those words, found herself stepping back.

"N... no! No, my Lord! But ..."

"But?"

Persephone unexpectedly managed to regain her brazen force. The one that had led her so far.

Maybe...

Well yes.

Perhaps the force of destiny.

 _Of her destiny._

"My Lord, I am nothing in front of you."

Hades' face seemed to lose its alabaster appearance. It seemed to go living flesh.

"Nothing? You are..."

"Nothing but a poor female to whom you have had the magnanimity to lower yourself."

"What? WHAT?"

"You are Hades, my Lord. The incredibly powerful, the incredibly ancient Hades. How can I - I, little, young, insipid Goddess - aspire to be ..."

Persephone felt herself fail the words.

But she tried to say it.

Desperately she tried.

And she desperately succeeded.

"... your Queen? Your ..."

She managed to finish in a whisper.

"... your Bride?"

Persephone lowered her eyes, bashful and ashamed.

It has been necessary for Hades to prick up his ears very well to hear her last words.

Many words.

Really many, if you think about the situation she found herself speaking in.

But very few in comparison to all she would have wanted to express.

"Everything I aspired to, my Lord, after I understood, with... with joy, the inescapability of my destiny…"

Words that could not be said all together, one behind the other, in a single, coherent speech.

"…o… o… obviously in case… in case…"

Words that could not help but to get fragmented, in the excitement and the emotion of that moment.

"…in case I…"

Words that could not help but be unable to arrange themselves in a logical and coherent order in those dramatic instants.

"…and… and I… I will never… I will never cease to amaze me... and… and to thank you… infinitely… for your magnanimity… for your magnanimity in giving me the… the liberty to decide about that…"

Words that could not fail to reflect the tumult that at that moment was eddying wild inside Persephone.

"… I mean…in… in case I had found… I had found it feasible for me to be part of your world…"

But clear words, ultimately. Perfectly clear. As much as they were fragmental and messy.

Absolutely clear.

"Oh in short! I mean... I mean that... that everything I aspired to, after… after I realized that I could not but be yours…"

Crystal-clear.

"It was to warm your heart and your bed!"

Unequivocal.

"Without hankering for anything more!"

Words coming from heart.

"The idea that I could really be your Queen and your Bride didn't even cross my mind!"

And silence fell.

Persephone was now silent, a little panting, her eyes still lowered, tormenting her hands.

She felt Hades' gaze on her.

As silent as her.

And she felt her cheeks get hot with redness.

Then something came to give a little freshness to her burning cheeks.

His hands.

Cold.

Yet warm by their strange warmth.

A warmth - abruptly she realized it - that only she could feel. Which was only for her.

Those hands gently forced her to lift her face towards his.

But she didn't dare look at him.

She couldn't, after what she had said.

Her eyes were shut.

And, so then, came his voice.

Could that voice, the voice of Hades, be so gentle?

So sweet?

Was it really his voice?

And yet it was his.

His unmistakable voice.

"Open your eyes, Persephone. Look at me."

She did it.

Hesitantly and shamefully, she did it.

And she saw his eyes.

They shone.

And not of black light.

They shone like suns.

And of an inexpressible sweetness.

"My sweetest Persephone, my great little Goddess. My Lady. Lady of my heart, of the heart you have made live and beat in my chest. Listen to me."

Those hands didn't leave her cheeks. And they did something else. Gently, the thumbs of those hands began to lightly caress the burning lobes of her ears, which, as her eyes got opened wide even more, were well pricked up.

To listen to that voice that enchanted.

"I was sitting on my throne. Down here. Letting spend over me another day. A day that I knew would be like all those that had preceded it since I had given my kingdom its definitive form and law. And like all those that would follow. An empty day. Like all my days."

Persephone felt something go up in her throat, something tormenting.

Heart-wrenching.

"Empty. In spite of all the work I had to do, as always. A gray day that would be lost in the infinity of all my gray days."

His loneliness.

His dreadful loneliness.

The harrowing loneliness of the Lord of the Underworld.

"And yet. That day ..."

The voice grew animated.

 _Persephone sensed._

"What was it, Persephone? What started to agitate, incomprehensible, inside me?"

 _She could do it._

 _She could sense the strange, by him never perceived before, tumult of mind he had experienced that day._

"I didn't understand, Persephone. I was unquiet. I, who didn't know disquiet. I, whose life was unchanging, flat, immovable chillness."

Unconsciously, her hands went up to rest on his.

"It was a shiver. A frisson of the soul. A yearning. Which I did not understand. But which was there. And which was getting more and more powerful. And which spoke to me of it, Persephone. It spoke to me of love."

Persephone's hands found themselves clenching suddenly those hands of him, which wonderfully tormented her cheeks and ears.

"Love. But this was impossible! All I knew of love was its name. I couldn't even conceive it. And yet... and yet ... - I don't even know how I was capable of, how I was able to come to understand that to this, to this sentiment, alien to me as any other sentiment, my obscure inner frisson was addressed - ... yet in some obscure way I realized that I was incredibly pining away for love."

Persephone could hear her heartbeats in her temples.

Her eyes were fixed wide open on his.

Her ears eagerly drank his words.

While her hands clutched his hands convulsively.

"No. It was not a day like the others, Persephone. It was a different day. And do you know what day was, Persephone?"

Persephone knew it. Yes. She knew it. It could only be that day!

The day...

"The day of your sixteenth birthday. The day you were presented to the assembly of the Gods, in Olympus, to take the place that was due to you within that supreme gathering and everywhere in the universe. The day when your amazing beauty was made visible to the whole world."

Yes! Yes! She knew! She had understood it even without him saying it! It had been the day she had observed that throne! That dark and bewitching throne, empty, in the midst of all the other thrones where the high Gods sat. His throne! The day she... the day during the night of she had been sleepless, as thinking about that throne! Sensing next to her, around her, on her, _**his**_ overwhelming presence!

"To the whole world. But not to me."

The words shook Persephone's soul.

She felt his hands slip away from hers, abandon her face.

She saw him withdraw backwards, his eyes dark.

She saw him turn around, show his back to her.

She saw him cross his hands nervously on his back.

She heard his voice, low and gloom.

"I was not invited to the ceremony."

The voice paused.

Then it resumed.

Grim and leaden.

"It had never happened."

Something, a tight lipped laugh that wanted to be sarcastic. And that sounded sad.

"Oh, but that's understandable. I had always brushed every invitation off. It was time to stop being polite. This must have been thought by the great Zeus, your father. Hades... let him stay where he likes to stay. In his realm of darkness and shadow. Persephone deserves all but his unwelcome, unnerving presence. "

Persephone was still.

She almost didn't breathe.

She was listening.

Was listening with her heart in turmoil.

"Or maybe..."

If possible the voice became even darker.

"Or maybe Zeus must have thought it was best preventing my eyes from resting on you, Persephone; that it was best avoiding some possible stupid nasty prank of destiny from coming true."

The low sardonic and sad laugh was heard again.

"Well, let's not forget that we are talking about Zeus. The very high Zeus. Who knows things that no one else knows. Zeus. Whose wisdom and power have no equal. Zeus. Who can oppose everyone and everything."

And, suddenly, the voice grew hard. And mighty.

"But not Destiny."

Hades turned abruptly.

His eyes cold with a ghostly light.

Persephone jumped.

They were eyes that cut soul, like his whispering voice.

"And not even me, who of Destiny am the ultimate hand."

Persephone's face was pale, white as a sheet, and Hades suddenly realized the scare he was arousing in her.

His eyes widened, terrified at understanding.

Choked, his voice sounded.

"No, no, Persephone!"

And, in her utter astonishment, he threw himself at her feet.

"Forgive me!"

His hands held hers.

His anxious face was turned upward toward hers, which was looking at his in mute amazement.

"I didn't want to scare you! I ..."

And Persephone smiled.

And Hades abruptly fell silent and remained motionless at her feet, able to do nothing else but stare at that wonderful smile without understanding anything anymore.

Her small, soft hands pulled him, inviting him to stand up.

Her smile did not go away, like the riant shimmer of her wonderful eyes, while - he now standing in front of her, his face expressing wonder and mute questions - they looked at his.

"It is passed, Hades, my Lord."

It was music. Very sweet music. Her soft voice.

Such was that voice for Hades.

But he was certain that such it was in absolute.

Then Persephone laughed.

And Hades felt that silvery laugh penetrate deep down him.

"On the other hand, my Lord, I will have to get used to having to deal with the terrible Hades, if ..."

And the laughter vanished.

Her eyes became as serious as ever.

And a murmur her voice.

"... if it ever happens that I ..."

"That you become my Bride?"

Hades had become Hades again. Strong and confident and subtly sarcastic, as Hades had to be.

That unspoken assertion from her had forced him to do so.

Because... - He understood it. Suddenly he understood it. In full. - … because he was Hades and to Hades she had given herself.

So he had to be Hades.

"This will depend on your choice, Persephone."

Hades put his hands again on her tremulous face, with infinite kindness.

He spoke softly, looking into her eyes.

"But it hasn't depended on your will nor mine or that of Zeus that I laid my eyes on you. It was Destiny."

His hands resumed his tormenting, wonderful caresses of her face.

"Was it the furious beating of the wings of Hermes' sandals - noisy to such an extent to penetrate even into my kingdom - in his spasmodic search for those who were invited to the ceremony? So it was, apparently. But, now, I no longer believe it was this. My yearning, Persephone. It was that inner tremor that I had never felt before to make me do what I did. That annoying, deafening noise was simply the means that Destiny used in order to make me do it. "

Persephone's eyes preceded her in her question.

"Wh... what did you do, my Lord?"

Hades' face became stone. An alabaster stone of inconceivable beauty.

Persephone nearly choked on gazing at him.

On thinking that that was the face of the one - of the tremendously powerful God - who had made her his own and... and who wanted her as his Bride!

"From time immemorial my eyes had not looked beyond the borders of my Kingdom. But they, Persephone, can see everywhere. Nothing can escape the sight of the Lord of the Underworld. Death can range everywhere, with its gaze. And I am the Lord of Death."

The strength of those words, the power of them, of that quiet, sure assertion, got carved into Persephone.

The Lord of Death!

This was Hades!

This was the one who was asking her to be his Bride!

Persephone lost herself in the immensity of that revelation.

Of that thing that she knew - she had always known - but that now stood out in all its might in her mind in turmoil.

The Lord of Death!

She had given herself to the Lord of death!

To the Lord of Death she had given her body and her heart!

But...

But then...

Did that meant ... did that mean ... that she was attracted to Death?

To the darkness of the annihilation of any light, of any possible hope for any future?

And... so... was she... was she darkness herself?

Was there something obscure in her that prevailed over the light of which she was carrier?

Was this why she had almost absently headed for the forest that marked the border between the kingdom of the living and the kingdom of the dead? Between the kingdom of light where she was born and where she lived and the kingdom of cold darkness where she was now and in which... in which she wasn't feel uncomfortable?

Was this why - truth... truth had to be admitted - ultimately she had resented not so much, after all, of being kidnapped by him?

Was this why she had accepted his invitation so easily?

Was this why she had found herself so at ease in wandering, alone, in his immense and line and dark palace, feeling within herself so attractive its mysterious obscurity?

Was this why she had let herself be enveloped and penetrated by _**his**_ darkness?

For this reason, in front of his hesitation, his procrastination... for this reason had she... yes! She had done it! ... had she made so that she would become his?

Was this why ... was this why Destiny...

 **WAS THIS WHY DESTINY HAD CHOSEN HER TO BE HIS?!**

How could it be?

There were two different people in her, perhaps?

Two different essences?

Two distinct entities competing for her being?

And... and so... what would she choose?

The light?

O ... or the darkness?

Was this the choice Hades was calling her to make?

Becoming his Bride, the Queen of his Kingdom, which would become her own Kingdom, and sharing his darkness, by uniting it with hers own, or giving up on his embrace, giving up on him? And losing him! To follow the light that was her own light!

But would this have given her...

Would this have given her... happiness?

How... how could a happiness exist that was the renunciation of love?

"You will know how to choose, my Lady."

Persephone goggled at Hades.

But how was it possible?

Could he perhaps be capable of reading other people's minds?

He laughed.

"Your eyes tell me that I have hit the mark, my little great Lady."

He laughed again.

"I could tell you that there can be no secrets for the Lord of Death, because nothing can escape his judgment. And, all things considered, I would not lie."

The soft laugh made itself heard again.

"But I think it can be said more than ascertained, by now, that I never lie, right?"

Then Hades became serious again.

"But truth is more prosaic. Simply, it's easy to understand what's going through your mind. Perhaps without even being fully aware of it - I have to admit it - I'm revealing myself to you for what I am. And, in hindsight, the why can be well understood. I want you to choose your future with full consciousness of what I am. I can't change, Persephone. I can be lightened by your light, but I will always be the Dark One. I made my choice already and from that choice I can't withdraw anymore. Now it's your turn. You too are called to choose. Your light. Or my darkness. But if you choose my darkness, it will mean that there is darkness in you too. And this makes your heart tremble."

There was something great in Hades' words.

Imperceptibly, Persephone realized that there could be nothing so high in the words of any other God.

Really Hades was different.

And her heart was swelled up.

It was to him that Destiny had consecrated her!

To the dark God. Yes sure!

But also to the God who from every other God stood out, standing above everyone else!

However...

Persephone frowned.

Clearly visible, the shadow passed through her eyes.

However, choosing him would have meant choosing love, sure. But it would also have meant admitting her own darkness.

And... and this was... this was...

With a faint voice, troubled in every fiber, and all the more reason because she realized that, in formulating her question, she also admitted she really harboured in herself... darkness, Persephone found herself asking.

"But... but what if I choose... if I choose to deny my darkness? To abjure my dark side? To not share your darkness? To not melt it with mine?"

All of a sudden, the words began to burst out from Persephone's depth, without her being able to hold them back.

"Will you really let me leave you?"

A dark shadow flared in Hades' eyes, at those words. But it quickly dissipated when he heard what she said immediately afterwards.

"And you? You, my beloved Lord? What will you feel, what will you do, if I choose to abandon you? Will I be condemned to feel forever the remorse for what I have denied you? For having damned you to your everlasting aloneness? After having giving you an instant, nothing more than a fleeting and ephemeral instant, of warmth?"

And the shadow in those eyes, the eyes of Hades, became sweetness, suffused with something that appeared for what it was.

True, authentic love.

And gratitude.

"You will not have to feel nor will you feel any remorse, Persephone. Your life is yours, it belongs to you. Despite your mother. Despite me. And it will smile on you whatever your choice may be, because you are purity."

Persephone jumped at that statement.

And he laughed softly, at her wince.

"Yes, you are pristine and crystal clear spring water, my Lady. Uncontaminated and incontaminable."

Persephone began to feel something inside her. Something... a warmth... never felt before. Which was making its way trough her. Which was advancing.

"You will be happy anyway, Persephone, for you are destined to give and have happiness. Because you are happiness in itself."

A warmth that was becoming flame.

"Therefore do not fear, Persephone. Explore my Kingdom with me and then make your choice. Make it, you who can do it. I did not have such a luck. And rest assured that whichever it is, it will be the right choice."

A flame that was becoming raging fire.

"And as for me ..."

Hades' eyes veiled. They seemed to get lost in the distance.

Like his voice.

"I had no choice when I was born as Hades. And I had no choice when my eyes got resting on you."

A sigh interrupted, fleeting, Hades' speaking. A grievous and deep sigh.

"The most beautiful thing, the most beautiful creature I'd ever seen. That I could ever have hoped to see."

His eyes cleared. They looked at her dreamily.

"You, Persephone."

And the fire inside Persephone flared up.

"At that moment, Persephone, at that precise moment, I realized that once again I had no choice."

Persephone felt like being enveloped in an embrace by those eyes that were absolutely no longer cold with the frost of the Lord of the Underworld. They were hot. As warm as the hottest love.

And the fire inside her turned disruptive.

Its burning blaze took her breath away.

"I had to... I had to! ... have you, Persephone! At any cost! Anyway! Even... even by kidnapping you! And I did it!"

Hades lowered those eyes, and Persephone felt she missed something she could not do without. His look!

With downcast eyes, he went on.

"I proposed to me of course, and I swore it to myself and took even an oath on the Styx, that I wouldn't abuse you, that I would let you choose the destiny you would want. But, ultimately, I've kidnapped you. At the end of the day, I've exercised violence on you. Why? Because I couldn't help but try to have you, whatever it was the obstacle that could get placed in my way, be it your mother's ostracism or even Zeus' denial, even if, about the latter eventuality, honestly I shrugged my shoulders. But then..."

His gaze rose. It rested on her again. And Persephone saw in it something she would have never thought to see.

Was it shame?

Was this what could be sensed in his voice?

"You asked yourself, Persephone, why on earth I hesitated, why I wasn't capable of making up my mind to ask you - perhaps even to exact from you, considering my position and rank - what I wished you to give me. And I circumvented, sarcastically and frankly a bit cravenly, your question. And it was you who bit the tail of the dragon. You who solved - wonderfully - the issue, my stupid and inane impasse. Stupid and inane, but understandable."

Persephone's eyes were wide.

Her heart was pounding hard.

"Now it is right and sacrosanct that you know the true why, my little, great, very great Goddess. I wasn't able to make up my mind because..."

Sadness.

Into his eyes.

Into his voice.

Untold sadness.

Which gripped Persephone's heart.

"For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?

Then, all of a sudden, those eyes, veined of unspeakable sadness, shone. The most vivid light glistened in them.

And his voice - the voice of Hades! - was pure joy!

"And instead you did it, Persephone! You gave me your love!"

Persephone was out of breath. All she could breathe was the powerful breath of her heart beating wildly.

"You said I've lowered myself to you. You're wrong, my wonderful little great Goddess. I haven't lowered myself to you. Anything but this. On the contrary I've elevated myself. You allowed me to do so, to rise until your height. You did so that I could breathe the high, fresh, pure and intoxicating air of your love."

 **Wildly** **!**

"And you taught me to love."

 **WILDLY!**

" **YOU!** "

The light in Hades' eyes lessened. It became a luminescence of sweetness. A smile of the heart.

"And so, my beloved..."

My beloved. MY BELOVED!

He had said... MY BELOVED!

"Have no fear for my lot, if you decide to leave me. What you have given me will never leave me. I'll never be alone anymore. You will always be with me."

And the fire inside Persephone exploded in all its violence.

It wrapped her.

It burned her.

And she reacted.

In the way it couldn't be otherwise for her to do.

She lunged forward.

She threw her arms around Hades' neck.

She enveloped him like she was ivy.

She shouted on his mouth.

"You will never be alone again! I will always be with you!"

She kissed him passionately, mixing the words with the kiss.

"I... choose... you!"

It was difficult, extremely difficult, for Hades detaching his lips from Persephone's.

But he made it.

And, no matter how even more difficult this could be, he - looking at her seriously - also managed to say what was right for him to say.

"Wait, Persephone. Don't be in a hurry. Don't let the passion of the moment overpower your mind."

Persephone looked at him, her arms still wrapped around him, without understanding.

He sighed.

"Follow your own wise advice, Persephone. Explore my world with me. And then, only after that, make your choice."

Persephone broke the embrace. She placed her hands on her hips, looking at him with what could be called a proud frown.

And, in her speaking, her way seemed to echo his own sardonic way.

And so it was, actually.

With, plus, an overt air of challenge.

"Listen to me attentively, my dear Lord of the Underworld."

A decidedly tough and resolute tone, besides proud.

"Is it true or not that it is not without reason that I went towards the dark forest that I knew very well to be, by all accounts, a tenuous border to your Kingdom?"

Hades found himself being stunned, unable to respond.

"Answer me, o powerful Lord of Nothing! Is it true or is it not?"

And Hades stammered.

Oh yeah.

He stammered.

"Act... act... actually..."

"And is it true or not that I was able to see what your helmet should have prevented me from seeing?"

"Persephone ..."

"Answer me, o great King of Netherworld. Have I been or not?"

"Y... yes!"

"And doesn't this have a precise meaning? Wasn't you yourself who realized it first?"

"I..."

"Is it not so?"

"It's... it's like that!"

"Very well."

Persephone folded her arms over her chest and fiercely advanced towards Hades, who, inconceivably, found himself stepping involuntarily back away from her.

"Now tell me one more thing, O King of Avernus."

"W... which one?"

"Am I wrong in saying that you told me that I would find the answer to all my questions if I'd followed you into your kingdom?"

"I..."

"Answer me, Hades!"

"Yes! I said it!"

Suddenly, Persephone lost all frown, every tough and challenging attitude.

Her face, her body, became pure passion.

Passion.

Passion in her gaze, in her expression.

In her voice.

Lightly shrill.

Because of the excitement.

"You were right, my Lord. I found that answer."

And Persephone snapped to hug Hades once more.

She literally threw herself into his arms with such fury that he, in order not to be thrown back, had to stop her momentum by raising her upwards, so that her face found itself at the same height as his, her feet lifted from the ground.

She pressed herself against him so strongly that even he felt his ribs ache.

Her face on his, her eyes on his.

Her lips on his.

Whispering softly and voluptuously on them.

"You are the answer."

Her lips stroked his.

They articulated one by one the words she had already said.

With strength and conviction.

"I. Choose. You."

And then those lips sealed his in a gruelling kiss of love.

The kiss was long.

Long and ardent.

Then, out of breath, the mouths detached from each other.

Persephone drew back a little her face, still sheltered in Hades' arms, still lifted from the ground by them.

She struggled to dominate her breathlessness.

Panting and smiling, her face just an inch from his, she wheezed "Take me... take me… take me to know your world, my Lord. Take me to know the world that will be mine."

Hades remained looking at Persephone without speaking, gazing at her beautiful and passionate face.

At that turgid and voluptuous mouth of her that was promising it would never stop kissing his.

At that mouth that said that...

That she chose to be his.

Really.

And forever.

Hades looked at that face for a long time.

Then he finally roused himself.

Slowly and gently, he lowered her, so that her feet could rest on the ground again, without ceasing to embrace her, though.

A new light, which he too - and not unconsciously - realized, in his eyes, he nodded.

And there was no uncertainty or hesitation in his words anymore.

"Come on, Persephone. Come to know your kingdom."

She laughed and extricated herself from his embrace.

"And how, my Lord? Is there a conveyance able to allow me, the debuting Goddess that I am, to accompany you in all the infinity of your kingdom ... oh, sorry ... of our kingdom? Perhaps ..." - And she laughed again, mischievous. - ... you will have to carry me in your arms. "

Hades' austere face did not move a single muscle.

Only, his eyes laughed.

He didn't speak.

He simply beckoned lightly with his head.

And a noise arose.

Faint at first.

Distant.

And then stronger and stronger.

And nearer.

Until it became a rumble.

In the air.

Nearer and nearer.

Near.

Near!

Until it revealed itself.

The rumble of the mighty hooves of the infernal steeds pulling his iron chariot across the void.

Persephone saw the chariot materialize in the nothingness of that sky of nothing.

She saw it slow down as it approached them.

She saw it touch down gently to the soil at a short distance from them and get still there, the proud steeds - big, black, powerful - puffing and beating their mighty hooves on the ground.

Hades looked at Persephone with a teasing glisten in his eyes.

"I fear that, though strong, even my arms would end up getting tired of holding you to carry you to know the Kingdom of the Dead in all its endless immensity, Persephone.

He turned towards the chariot, still, waiting.

His arm made a broad gesture towards it.

"Here's the conveyance, Persephone."

He turned to her, his lips bent into a wry smile.

"You know it. You were forced by me to board it rather... violently. But it is the best means. The only one, I would say."

Then the wry smile disappeared.

Hades' face became serious.

Extremely serious.

"At least as long as our union will not be sealed by the sacredness of the bond of marriage. Then you will be mistress of moving everywhere, here, by your simple will. Exactly like me."

Persephone stood watching Hades for a few moments, without answering.

Then she smiled.

And her voice was as playfully wry as Hades'.

"It was not a very disagreeable journey the first I did on this chariot, my Lord. Rather unwillingly, to tell the truth, at least at first, but not really unpleasant, all things considered. And I have the audacity to believe that this second journey will be definitely better."

And, having said that, she turned her back on Hades and headed steadily toward the wagon to board it, without waiting for him to guide her.

"Persephone!"

His alarmed voice made her stop suddenly and turn around abruptly.

"Hades! What ...?"

"The horses! Be careful! You are too close! Pass far away from them! They are my horses! The infernal steeds! They are dangerous for anyone but me!"

Persephone turned swiftly her head towards the horses. Without realizing it, she had approached them as she moved toward the chariot.

Much.

Very much.

And their proud and fierce snouts were turned towards her.

Their deathly shining eyes were watching her.

Close up.

Dangerously close up.

And, at that moment...

Just at that moment...

She could not explain why.

Was she crazy?

Yes, she was crazy.

That was the only explanation.

But she did it.

And something inside her told her she wasn't doing wrong.

Quickly but quietly, she moved even closer to the horses, almost up to touch them.

Careless of Hades' voice.

"Persephone! No!"

Careless of the noise of his quick, anxious steps.

She stopped right in front of the first of the big steeds.

The driving one.

Great.

Immense.

Proud.

With quivering nostrils.

And her hand rose.

Softly it settled on the steed's snout.

It stroked it.

Slowly and delicately.

And the steed gently moved the proud muzzle, pandering to the caress.

And snorting softly.

By contentment.

For a few moments this continued.

Then something enveloped her.

His cloak.

And then his voice.

Hushed.

"You'll need it, Persephone."

She felt his hand on her shoulder.

And his voice again.

Even softer, if possible.

"Come on, my Lady."

The hand, while her own hand almost reluctantly left the muzzle of the steed, made gently turn her and guided her, making her move away from the steed.

"Come."

She let him lead her and help her get on the chariot.

For a few moments he stood still down, at the foot of the chariot, without getting on, watching her standing on the chariot, wrapped in his black cloak, watching him in her turn.

Intensely.

As intensely as he was watching her.

And intense, even in his still subdued voice, a clear note shone that was unbelief and pride together.

And contentment.

Joy.

"It is time for you…"

Hades broke off an instant and then finished the sentence, vigorously stressing his words.

"…to take possession of your Kingdom."

There was a moment of silence. Long, as intense as the gazes.

Then Hades jumped on the chariot.

He stood still and upright beside Persephone, with his face turned to her, who, standing at his left side, firmly grasped from under the mantle his arm with both hers, quiet and trusting, her face proudly and determinedly turned forward.

Hades turned his face and looked forward, the way Persephone was doing.

He breathed deeply swelling his chest.

Then, finally, he grabbed the reins with the hand of his free arm, as the other hand, the one whose arm Persephone was gripping strongly, held steadily the front edge of the chariot.

He made the reins snap vehemently, as his voice rang imperiously.

"Go!"

The chariot leaped and rocketed overwhelmingly upwards.

* * *

 ** _End of Chapter Twenty-Five_**

 ** _TBC_**

 **oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo**

 _The Kingdom of Dead._

 _Its Queen goes to take possession of it._


End file.
